1) Several Santa Clara University students partied excessively in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico over spring break, resulting in negative consequences like overdoses, unsafe sex, and drug use. 2) The students felt a sense of invincibility and empowerment to take risks due to past experiences facing no repercussions. However, in Mexico, their actions had greater legal stakes like large fines and jail time. 3) Experts note that privileged students experience stress differently and seek risk-taking like binge drinking as a way to relieve uncertainty, while feeling protected from rules at their university. Their actions in Mexico showed how over-confidence can lead to dangerous behavior away from familiar contexts.

1. A Cloak of Invincibility and Tequila
How the students of Santa Clara University crossed the border and reached the brink of
consequence.
Isabel Conte
Santa Clara University
Journalism Capstone
June 9, 2016

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All names of spring breakers have been changed to protect their identities.
March 24th
, 2016— “Riu! Riu Santa Fe,” I said to the taxi driver, directing him back to
the resort for our last night in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The doors of the large black van
were closing when an unfamiliar voice screamed, “Wait!” while pulling the door open
from the street. “I lost my friends but I have money!” he said. Understanding the
implications of a broken buddy system in a foreign land, we welcomed the UCLA
outsider into the embrace of the van, whose warm aroma consisted of gasoline and sweat.
What began as innocent small talk about school and vacation quickly spiraled into
something darker. “My roommate passed away last night,” said the flustered, freshly
initiated passenger, whose flippant comment made the incident seem smaller than it was.
Awkward silence turned into a combination of sensitive inquisitions and apologies. “He
took 6 Xanax and didn’t wake up from his nap,” said the roommate of the 22 year-old,
fourth-year UCLA student who had overdosed the night before.
A crumpled cluster of singles was handed to the driver by the unloading passengers, who
parted ways to their respective rooms, each with a newly disillusioned perspective on
their own recklessness over the past few days and nights. They had just heard firsthand
about the ultimate consequence.
A quick glance down the aisle of the 747 the next morning was enough to grasp the
chaos of the past four days spent in Cabo. However, most travelers resided in a state of
oblivion, as they did not know about the drug-induced fatality of a fellow spring breaker
just two nights before.
Instead, the focus was on pounding headaches and unquenchable thirst. This was the type
of hangover that did not discriminate, and was detectable with all five senses. The cheap
tequila that prompted these dizzying physical imbalances seeped out from every pore of

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the young passengers, creating a stench like that found in a frat house the morning after a
blowout party.
Heavy heads took on different positions; some rested flat on the cold plastic tray tables,
while others attempted to remain upright in the blue leather chairs. The onset of
exhaustion kicked in and eyes stricken with dark circles found comfort in shutting. The
three-hour journey back to reality had begun for all but one Santa Clara student who had
missed his return flight to the motherland.
It was a sickly stampede of Broncos shuffling onto American Airlines flight 237. Instead
of boarding the completely full jet back to San Jose on that Thursday afternoon, SCU
senior Alexander found himself in an ambulance on the way to St. Luke’s Medical
Center.
“The scariest part of the experience was when my body started to seize up and almost
every muscle in my body was flexed to the maximum. My heart rate was well beyond the
normal level,” said Alexander. “The doctor at the hospital said that it was a combination--
the drinking for five days straight, being out in the sun all day, spending a lot of time in a
chlorine-filled pool, the amphetamines, the molly (the drug MDMA, also known as
ecstasy), a lack of water, and not eating enough food.”
This disastrous mixture left Alexander in a Mexican hospital, where he lay hooked to an
IV that pumped him with a restoring concoction of vitamins and electrolytes. Mexican
doctors, well versed in English, attributed the scare to extreme dehydration.
“At this point, I started to consider that I may have taken bad molly which was terrifying
because I vaguely remembered hearing something about an American student that took
some bad Xanax at our hotel while we were there and died because of it,” said Alexander.

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The flight home from this four-day spring break bender marked the end of a short
vacation and the beginning of a long recovery for Alexander and the mass of Santa Clara
University students who opted to party on the beaches of Mexico following the end of
winter quarter at the private Jesuit university.
Back at school, things seemed back to their insulated norm. Santa Clara University’s lush
green campus with imported palm trees, located in Silicon Valley, inspired a kind of
bulletproof cloak protecting the students of SCU from the harsh repercussions of their
actions; This shield lent itself to the mangled decision making that took place under the
Mexican sun during spring break. Social media also fueled this university-instilled
delusion, creating a virtual arena for the SCU students to compete in. This unspoken
competition was the kind whose gold medalist had to have the most outrageous story with
hard evidence to share.
A privilege-induced feeling of invincibility drove students to the brink of consequence in
a place where the stakes were far greater than those back at the utopian-like university.
This unstoppable rush of getting away with it and surviving to tell the tale was nothing
new, as they had also felt this way within the confines of their university. However, this
feeling of indestructability translated into a sense of power across the border, despite the
potential for disaster.
Beginning in March, college students from across the United States storm coasts that
sport an adequate UV index. Beaches from Florida to Mexico are transformed into circus-
like spectacles unsuitable for the presence of any family. And while the pressures of
collegiate life are enough to drive these twenty-somethings to the outposts of the North
American continent, there are other motivations involved in these travel decisions.
According to the Journal of American College Health, motives for going on Spring Break
include: escaping from school and school-related responsibilities; to experience warmer

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climates for adventure; to seek fun and enjoyment; and to explore opportunities for drugs,
drinking sex.
Zdena Op de Macks, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Translational
Neuroscience at the University of Oregon expands on the latter of these motivations.
Op de Macks, who focuses on social influences and adolescent risk-taking behavior,
identified the drug, drinking, and sex extremes as experimentation and a way to push the
limits. “Risk taking is a form of exploration,” said the postdoc. Young adults, many of
whom are about to graduate and enter the real world, have strutted through the past four
years untouched by both the legal system and the university’s administration, granting
them an inherent sense of power.
“Out of the university context and away from any kind of authority figure, these kids feel
empowered to do whatever they please. Because they have not felt repercussions back at
school, it seems okay to push the limits, even in a foreign country,” said Op de Macks.
The researcher continued to assess the different forms of this kind of limit pushing,
addressing behaviors similar to those seen on MTV’s Spring Break.
Squid Roe is the infamous nightclub and hub for Spring Break enthusiasts. Walk in and
look up, way up, the three stories of metal infrastructure resembling some kind of
organized iron junkyard lit by red and green strobe lights and drunken party fanatics, who
also happen to be American college students. A few steps in and take position under a
rainfall of overpriced mixed drinks and sweat tainted by overpowering cologne, all
falling from the levels above. Looking to both sides of the club, the first and second
stories present an obscure, public transportation themed décor, with London flags
adorning the bright red buses that double as alcohol stations. Complementary to the
buses, yellow and black striped caution tape lined each level, making it clear just how far
the inebriated individuals on the third floor were from those on the first.

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It was the first night at the infamous three-story shit show where any and all constraints
were forgotten and no behavior was off limits. Eliza seemed to be embracing this
limitless mentality as the drinks poured and the lights slowly dimmed, eventually erasing
all memory and reaching a full blackout.
The next morning, the curtains in the high-ceilinged bedroom of the top floor suite fell
with a crack, letting sunbeams in to shed light on the situation. The 21-year-old looked
next to her to find a face from Stanford that was familiar thanks only to Facebook.
A quick glance across the terracotta-tiled floor was soon met with a wave of
disappointment as Eliza came to terms with the fact that a condom wrapper was nowhere
in sight despite the previous nights’ occurrences, which came back to her in bite size
pieces that seemed more like crumbs. The other queen bed was just feet away. It was
taken over by two Stanford football players, whose masculinity shown on ESPN did not
translating in real time.
According to the Hospitality Review, over 50 percent of students reported infrequent
condom use with sexual partners they met while on Spring Break or with new partners
they met before arriving in Mexico. “The room smelled like a hangover,” said Eliza. “We
all woke up, drank a beer on the porch overlooking the water, and they sent me home in a
cab. Back to the glorious Riu Santa Fe.”
While she knows the sex was consensual, she admits to the uneasy feeling of waking up
in an unfamiliar place with people that were not from her school. Back on Bellomy
Street, which is lined with run down frat houses and lawns stricken with red solo cups, a
liquor-induced blackout was nothing out of the ordinary for Eliza or her fellow sorority
sisters. In this context however, unsafe sex seemed more sound. “At school, I go out and
see the same people every night so even if I have a bad night, I usually don’t think twice
about it because at least I wake up in a familiar place,” said Eliza.

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Spring break has not always been an excuse for college students to get wasted and
capitalize on booze-fueled sex in tropical travel destinations nearing the equator. Instead,
the vacation period originated after a swim coach from Colgate University, Sam Ingram,
brought his team to Ft. Lauderdale in 1936 to train in the first Olympic-sized pool. The
Florida city capitalized on this when they decided to host College Coaches’ Swim Forum
at the Casino Pool on an annual basis.
What began as a sports-oriented, collegiate swim competition has since transformed into
an unruly vacation time manifested in high risk behaviors under the sun. According to the
US Department of State, over 100,000 American teenagers and young adults travel to
tourism destinations throughout Mexico over spring break each year.
In 1986, MTV launched its first spring break special from Daytona Beach, Fla. Since, the
program has helped mold a bad rap for spring break, reinforcing its image as a sea of
belligerent college students prone to the dangers of unsafe sex and binge drinking.
Another program contributing to the imagery surrounding this highly anticipated travel
period was Girls Gone Wild, pioneered in 1997 by 24-year-old Joe Francis. “Soon people
started believing what we showed. Girls Gone Wild became spring break,” said Francis
in an interview with New York Magazine. Reality seems to have followed fiction for the
students of Santa Clara.
Anna Lembke, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford
University Medical Center acknowledges the risk behavior that took place in Cabo and
says that privilege is a contributing factor. “Students from protected, privileged
backgrounds experience constant daily stress, but not the kind of stress that it is easy to
make sense of,” said Lembke. “They experience the stress of too much leisure time, too
many choices, and lack of certainty about the purpose of their lives.”

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Those attending the four-day sunburnt bender felt stress of in the form of uncertainty.
This however was not the kind of stress from the unknown that comes with college
graduation or losing a job. Instead, it was uncertainty about how many drinks would be
consumed or if the vacation would live up to its expectations and most importantly if
those expectations could be translated via social media.
“Yeah, I was obviously planning on partying and being fucked up the entire time I was
there…and that’s pretty much what I did in Cabo,” said Alexander’s frat brother Graham.
“During that week before Cabo, everyone just talked and kind of speculated about what
would happen, who would sleep with who, and who would get the most fucked up.” In
accordance with the Journal of American College Health, those who identified partying
as their motivation consumed significantly more alcohol than those who selected other
reasons for travel.
Dr. Cameron Anderson of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University’s Adam Galinksky
explain the relationship of power and risk taking in the European Journal of Social
Psychology: “People have long associated the possession of power with intoxication,
crystallized in the phrase ‘drunk with power.’ Inherent in this expression is the idea that
power and alcohol produce the same effects on decision making.” Spring break in Cabo
was no stranger to either of these entities. The SCU students were predisposed to a sense
indestructability resulting from successful past risky endeavors before journeying to the
country whose flag sports red, white, and green. In turn, a surge of tequila and power
combined to create a mob of audacious “adults.”
Lemke, who is also the Program Director for the Stanford University Addiction Medicine
Fellowship, went on to say that both males and females are using more potent variations
of drugs and alcohol because these substances are more easily accessible and because
they have the money to do so.
This assertion was brought to light on the beaches of Cabo as a third SCU frat brother
Aidan made his way onto the smoldering sand in search of the white powdery substance

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that he was so well acquainted with back on American soil. The acquisition process
differed here however, as there was not the familiarity and comfort felt with the trust
dealer back on Bellomy. Here, the stakes were higher; unlike the trusty American legal
system, under Mexican law, you are considered guilty until proven innocent.
According to the Mexican Country Report, penalties for drug offenses are strict, and
convicted offenders can expect large fines and jail sentences of up to 25 years. If
Mexican laws are broken, a U.S. citizenship cannot help avoid arrest of prosecution.
The Mexican Country Report also warns against the dangers of Mexican law enforcement
and local interference when it comes to prescription drugs: “There have been cases of
U.S. citizens buying prescription drugs in border cities only to be arrested soon after or
have money extorted by criminals impersonating police officers. Those arrested are often
held for the full 48 hours allowed by Mexican law without charges being filed, then
released. During this interval, the detainees are often asked for bribes or are solicited by
attorneys who demand large fees to secure their release.”
With another drunken fiasco came a hairstyle for Aidan; cornrows seemed to be the
perfect complement to the fluorescent “Cabo” headband. Next to the headband station
settled another kind of barterer, only this vendor’s product was the kind that could land
you in a Mexican jail.
“I saw this girl holding a sketchy plastic bag talking to some guy on the beach so I made
my way down there cause I had a feeling I knew what was going down,” said Aidan, who
asked for the higher-grade cocaine from a large statured-local with broken English whose
small dog sat beside him, acting as some kind of a sidekick for his small-scale coke
operation.
“The drip tasted like maple syrup and it was shitty but we still finished it all in like ten
minutes,” said Graham, Aidan’s partner in mischief and drug abuse both in Cabo and

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back in California. Expectations were hardly met in terms of the quality, however it was
still a grand victory even for these self-proclaimed bad boys who take the term frat-star to
new extremes.
Though the alcoholic haze had blurred any potential inhibitions that would have helped in
the decision making process, sobriety brought Aidan back to a world where certain
actions do in fact have consequences. “Yeah, maybe that wasn’t my best decision to date
but I was fucked up and honestly I’ve gotten away with worse.” Being able to afford
taking such risks was a result of doing it over and over and getting away with it. The
difference however comes with the context and implications of buying cocaine in Mexico
versus back at school where it was a routine of sorts. According to the European Journal
of Social Psychology, “Powerful people might be so focused on the payoffs and not
focused at all on the consequences of their actions, and more optimistic that they can get
away with a range o f actions, that their behavior becomes more risky, less inhibited, and
more likely to violate social and ethical norms. It might be that optimism, rather than any
inherent wickedness, leads power holders to engage in such egregious acts."
Lembke further explains this bulletproof feeling of power that is a constant for many of
the students of Santa Clara University; “Perception of risk decreases if an individual has
engaged in a risky activity without an adverse experience,” said. “So yes, it makes sense
that college students who believe they can use drugs safely in one context, will assume
the same safety principles apply in another context,” continued the seasoned professor
and MD.
“The only reason I bought blow in Mexico is because I’ve never gotten in trouble before
and I buy it all the time at school,” said Aidan, reaffirming Lembke’s argument.
Privilege is nothing out of the ordinary for Aidan’s best friend Graham who is also in
the same fraternity. Graham stood amid concrete filth and eager beggars outside of the
infamous nightclub, Squid Roe. He sported his long sleeve Delta Gamma tee and green

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reflective Spy shades on his head - a uniform of sorts for this seasoned spring breaker.
Smoke poured out from nostrils that have seen about four years of wear and tear. His
every word was spoken with a confidence that came with topics of drugs and alcohol,
which happen to be his areas of expertise. “It’s fucking lit” has become a part of the
Bellomy dwellers vocabulary thanks to this Santa Clara University student who is senior
both in class rank and party status.
The searing sun lent its rays to Graham’s already borderline frosted tips, leaving them
with the kind of highlights that his sorority counterparts strive for. These golden locks
however were not the main focus of the night. Instead, the flashing strobe lights created a
headache of an atmosphere as Graham stood atop a circular metal table that could barely
hold his weight. The Ritalin had taken full effect and each movement was fast but his
eyes told a different story, as they squinted struggling to remain open. They told the story
of an all day bender of countless cheap tequila drinks and trips to la farmacia, leading to
an all night binge at Squid Roe in the heart of downtown Cabo, which is lined with
nightclubs, drunk college students, and poverty stricken Mexican children begging for
money.
“I blew like $1,200 bucks, maybe more. But at least we were staying at an all inclusive,”
said Graham. According to The International Average Salary Income Database, the
subtotal of this four-day stunt is approximately four times the average monthly wage for a
Mexican working in the hotel or restaurant business. This disparity in wealth became a
stark reality as drunken college students stormed the streets of the downtown, walking
alongside locals who found comfort on the concrete.
The small plastic basket was gripped tightly in tiny worn hands, holding an assortment
of colorful chicle that was to act as some kind of compensation for hopeful donations by
American tourists. Behind her miniature almond eyes lay a range of experience,
impossible for most Americans to comprehend.

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The kind of innocence that should radiate from a child of this age, about 5 or 6 years old,
was missing. Instead, she held onto a kind of maturity instilled by the harsh reality of the
filth-stricken Mexican streets where she spent her nights looking for willful donors who
may have had too much to drink. As she made her rounds back and forth, her mother sat
on the sidewalk with her teenage brother whose disability had landed him in a
wheelchair.
A hand three times the size of the girls’ reached out from a sleeve of a seer-suckered
jacket, belonging to Graham, creating the kind of juxtaposition of wealth and poverty
deserving of a Pullitzer. It was an unlikely trade: a small stack of fives for a fun-sized
packet of purple gum. There was something captivating about the girl whose infectious
giggle landed all eyes on her.
She was the perfect combination of a small-statured schemer deserving of an Oscar, and a
genuinely impoverished local child whose next meal came with an appetizer of
uncertainty. This medley of qualities was what earned her some Lincolns, which she
excitedly grabbed and ran back to show her mother.
It was a scene unlike what the sheltered students of Santa Clara were used to. Although
the streets of San Francisco, just an hour north of the university, are strewn with the
homeless from Golden Gate Park to the Mission, this kind of poverty did not compare to
what was found on Marina Blvd. in downtown Cabo San Lucas.
The young girl made the same trip back and forth to her mother around 6 times; each
time the distance seemed greater and greater as a wave of sobriety and sadness fell over
the small group of SCU and Northwestern students.
As they huddled in front of a taqueria next to the bar ‘Happy Endings,’ the young girls’
utter desperation became apparent. With no more bills to spare, the group left for Squid
Roe to continue the binge, only this time holding onto an unforgettable image of poverty
and despair. The hand that reached out with a small sum of American dollars was also the

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hand that had the power to determine the next meal for this single mother and her two
children that resided under a narrow ridged awning of a closed-down store front. What
they had seen was unthinkable back in the manicured grasp of the Santa Clara campus
only reinforcing a desire to remain in the protected bubble where raw hardship was not
granted access.
March 20, 2016- With the subtle clinking of an Altoid tin tucked in the depths of his
red North Face backpack, Jason scurried through American security eagerly clinging on
to a small feat. This triumph came with the successful smuggle of small white tablets
resembling the vintage peppermints into Mexico.
“I brought in 6 Versace pills,” said Jason, referencing the ecstasy pills embellished with
the logo of the high-end Italian fashion label, which features the head of infamous Greek
mythology character, Medusa. The colorless MDMA cylinders were also laced with 24kt
gold flakes and found a home in the metal rectangle, alongside the mints that truly
belonged there.
According to the U.S. Department of State, the importation, purchase, possession or use
of drugs can lead to imprisonment without bail for up to a year before a case is tried and
imprisonment of several years following a conviction. Additionally, all individuals 16
years of age or older are tried as adults. The differences in Mexico’s legal system did not
deter Jason or the rest of his motley crew from taking dangerous chances.
“Relief” is what he felt upon successfully slipping through the cracks of the security at
LAX. “I was actually freaking out when I had to go through security again once we got to
Mexico,” said Jason. Another turn of events wherein Jason came out unscathed occurred
hours after his skirt through the grasp of America’s loved and trusted TSA when he did
not get randomly selected by the Mexican security upon landing. He had successfully
smuggled ecstasy into the country.

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Technology is another contributing factor to this sense of risky exploration, often times
placing its users on an untouchable pedestal. Lembke drew on the correlation between
social media and extreme behavior in regards to drugs: “This trend toward higher potency
is facilitated by technological innovation and social media. The former enables
innovations in chemical synthesis and production, and the latter propagates the
information with lightning speed through the Internet.” Additioanlly, Lembke
acknowledges that the students from the private Jesuit institution have the purchasing
means for such recreation.
Technology however is not only contributing to drug abuse, it is also lending its cold
hand to a competition-driven influence on behaviors, especially when there is a chance to
get “likes.” “A lot of people were worried about bringing their phones out but we all
obviously wanted pictures so a bunch of us bought disposable cameras to document the
trip,” said Jason’s female complement, Krystal with the stack of developed pictures on
her lap, many of which were up close sun-burnt selfies with drunken drooping eyes and
goofy smiles. Third Text, an international journal dedicated to the critical analysis of
contemporary art in the global field asserts, “A vision of the good society has now been
replaced with visions of individual happiness characterized by an endless search for
instant gratification and self-recognition.”
Lemke elabortates on this new vision of society: “The selfie culture encourages
documenting something epic and doing things for an audience,” said Lembke. Oxford
Dictionary underscored the importance of the term in modern culture in 2013 when
declaring it the word of the year. In regards to risk taking, the selfie phenomenon evokes
an online network wherein participants must compete via social media to depict a more
glamourized, or in this case, more extreme lifestyle. According to the European Journal
of Social Psychology, “Risky behavior may increase power because of the message it
implicitly conveys to others: that they can afford to take such risks by virtue of their
power.”

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Third Text also touches on a similar phenomenon in saying, “A market-driven moral
economy of increased individualism and selfishness has supplanted any larger notion of
caring, social responsibility and the public good.”
Essentially, it is a combination of factors fertilizing such conduct: It is a feeling of being
untouchable that drives an inherent sense of power. And to add, media platforms drive
behavior that can then be documented, showing followers that the life portrayed on the
screen is better because they can do these things.
And while Jason was not exactly Snapchatting his risky ecstasy expedition, questions and
stories began surfacing when the news reached outside of his intimate circle. This was
not the only daring deed of young Jason. Each day of the trip there seemed to be a
different poison of choice: blow, molly, and meth, each with a more outrageous story.
After a long day of drinking at Mango Deck, the walk back to the resort along the beach
seemed a bit too strenuous. Instead, Jason and a small group of his fellow fraternity
brothers opted for a water taxi. This was carpool-style transportation, with multiple
groups aboard going to different resorts along the same trajectory. Upon exiting the boat,
Jason’s frat bro picked up a small baggie filled with blue meth, similar to the batches
shown on AMC’s Breaking Bad. “We just gummed a little bit. When in Mexico, fuck it,”
said Jason.
The next day, which happened to be the last, drinking was not an option for Jason. The
meth in his system was accompanied by molly. Whether it was the combination of the
two drugs or if the molly was just a “bad batch,” Jason is still not sure what caused him to
feel ill that day. “I was shaking because I was having alcohol withdrawals but I felt too
fucking sick to take a sip of anything,” said Jason. Hours later back at the Riu, his drug-
induced ailment came to an end just in time to finish the booze marathon for the last
night.

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While the large group of approximately 150 SCU tourists returned to America
relatively unscathed, the extreme risk taking during the trip warranted more severe
consequences. “I would say we were all pretty lucky with getting away with some stupid
shit,” said Jason.
Whether it was an armored suit of luck or simply stupidity hiding under a shield of an
empowerment, the students found themselves behaving carelessly beneath the Mexican
palm trees similarly to the way they did back on the campus.
“Most have been shielded from the kinds of suffering that humans have evolved to
contend with - hunger, thirst, and other challenges of basic survival,” said Lembke.
“Engaging in risky behavior is one way for privileged and protected young people to
regain a sense of being alive and connected with their basic instincts, without having any
real understanding of the dangers involved.”
Most college students vacationing on the Pacific coast managed to make it back across
the border with nothing more than a bad hangover, however Alexander was not as
fortunate.
And while Alexander eventually made his way back to the States safely, he continues to
feel repercussions from the experience and has been seeking support at SCU’s Cowell
health center: “I have gone to a few counseling sessions since I got back.”
“It’s honestly hard to even think about the entire experience. The issue was both in
getting caught up in the excitement of the moment and in failing to recognize that as a
smaller guy, I physically can't keep up with a lot of my friends.” said Alexander.
As Alexander lay weak in a hospital bed, his fellow frat brothers and sorority sisters alike
sat as comfortably as one can on an airplane, editing pictures to upload to Facebook and
Instagram. Graham’s post of his fraternity booze-cruising on the very first night
happened to get the most likes, with a whopping 173.

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Mysterious orange drinks rested in one hand and the other hands held up the number 1,
signifying some kind of victory with The Arch rocks emerging from the blue water in the
background. This was the perfect package of privilege and partying, wrapped in the small
square confines of an IPhone screen with the caption reading, “Never going back to
Mexico again.” The only thing missing from this picture was Alexander, despite his
shared coveted position in the fraternity. He had missed the sunlit photo op just as he had
missed his American Airlines flight home.
Now, coming to terms with the aftermath of Spring Break in Mexico, Alexander admits,
“There is this feeling that the bad things happen to other people, not me, but I guess I was
wrong.”
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