The Roads Not Taken

Today, as Harvard students across campus wrap up their stress-filled academic years, one must wonder why so many have planned for themselves stress-filled summers.

By Sunday, countless students will board the Delta Shuttle to their I-banking and consulting internships in downtown New York. Others will take on full time research positions in one of Boston’s leading hospitals or biotech firms. Many more will engage in three-month community service projects—domestically and abroad.

But if Harvard students need or deserve anything this summer, it is some real rest and relaxation—away from the densely packed schedule of a full-time resume builder. We need to take our minds off the grind of life, if only for a moment, and embrace a long-forgotten idea: spontaneity.

Hence, the road trip. The quintessential American opportunity for the great escape beckons Harvard students—and we should heed its call. Since the 1960s, young Americans have been driving vast distances on the interstate system—loving the freedom their cars provide to chart a fresh course through an otherwise restrictive world. Now, as our generation ascends to its own independence, it is time for us to exercise this collegiate birth-right.

Going to college is an escape from the parental control felt throughout adolescence. But the road trip offers freedom from the restraints of college itself. On the open road—without timetables and deadlines—one can travel at one’s own discretion and choose from any number of open paths without consequence. Route 66 vs. Route 9 lacks the high stakes of M.B.A. vs. M.D.

By forcing cooperation in close quarters over vast distances, the road trip solidifies college friendships. At Harvard, many students are—for the first time—exposed to people from others part of the country. Californians meet Louisianans, Bostonians meet Texans, and Utahans meet Long Islanders. Our summers offer a great opportunity for new friends to pile into a car and cruise cross-country—actually experiencing, first hand, the different regions and cultures that make up this diverse nation. The summer road trip can be an extension of the bonding experience that goes on throughout the rest of the year.

No doubt, many have already budgeted in some time for travel this summer. But while most Harvard students tend to be from urban or suburban areas, they also tend to travel to cities. Washington, New York, Boston, Montreal and San Francisco are all major summer destinations. But a pre-planned rush from point A to point B misses the point of the road trip.

A trek down I-95 to Orlando, dotted with the franchise culture of McDonald’s and Comfort Inns, is neither spontaneous nor original. The road trip should not be a means of getting to your vacation spot, but a vacation in itself.

Half the fun of the road trip is to set out with no destination in mind. The goal of the trip is not to get any particular place, but to enjoy the ride along the way. While so many of us have planned out our lives through age 40, it is a needed release to find something in which the journey means more than the destination.

Harvard students should pile into their cars this summer. Who knows, you and your friends might end up taking a spontaneous turn through purple mountains or amber waves of grain. Or you might not. Let the road decide.