Spring Break, here we come!

 “anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.”

More often than not I’m asking myself, “What the hell did I get myself into?” I remember seeing the ASB promo stuff all over the Quad and the overly friendly faces asking anyone who would pass by, “What are your plans for spring break?!?” I never gave ASB a second thought, thinking it’d be too expensive, too much work to apply, my parents would never agree to it, I’m already super involved, my resume looks good enough, I wouldn’t get to see my friends back home if I left- all of these excuses piled up made it easy for me not to think too far into the proposal. And that’s where all of it ended until Kendra, a good friend of mine who happened to be one of the ASB trip leaders, sent me a link through Facebook to the online application. “Oh, here we go again,” I thought, “I’ll fill it out just to make her happy. She said I’d be on the waiting list anyways, so my chances of actually getting accepted are slim.” I didn’t bother telling any of my friends or family because I figured I would just be coming home in a couple weeks. Wrong. A few days later, I open my inbox up to an email: “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted on ASB to go to Huntsville, Texas for prison justice!”

Hahahaha what? Shit. So that wasn’t really the plan. Awkward. Well…now I’ve got an acceptance email to confirm, liability waivers to fill out, $200 due by Friday, a weeklong amount of clothes and necessities to pack, and a surprise phone call to make to my mom. This should be fun, I thought to myself.

“Hey Mama, so uhhh, what do you think about Texas?”

“Leah…what did you sign up for this time?” She knows me so well.

“Oh nothing, it’s just a service thing.” I try to avoid the details.

“Leah Marie…what kind of service thing?”

“Well, it’s kind of in Texas…and it’s kind of working with prison justice…and it’s kind of only $200…and kind of all spring break. So I can go, right?” Here comes the rejection, I think.

“I will talk with your father. Forward me the information. We’ll see.” (which is primarily a big fat no…)

The next day my dad calls me to talk about the trip, and he’s surprisingly interested, “Well, since this could be beneficial to your resume and your future career, your mother and I have decided to let you go.”

This whole time I was thinking hypothetically: if I can actually go.

And now here I am on a Peoria charter bus with 39 other Illinois State students (most of which I’ve never met) an hour away from our destination of Huntsville, Texas to spend an entire week working with three different organizations that help ex-convicts and their families readjust to life outside of prison. I mean I think that’s what I signed up for… Spring Break 2014, here we come.