Keep your vacation bragging business to yourself

Catie Campagnino ’26, Staff Writer • December 6, 2023

If a person can just take the extra second to think about what they are saying and the tone of voice that they are using, it could make all the difference for the person that is receiving the message. People can read minds they can only go off based on what someone said and the tone that they said it in.

Have you ever been at lunch and your friend asked you “Where are you going for break?” You tell them that you are going to your grandparents house and you’re going to see other family members along the way. Your friend replies with “Oh that’s nice! But I’m going to Europe,” and they say that in the tone of voice we all know: the dreaded bragging tone.

Everytime break rolls around, I find myself in this exact situation. I get really excited to see my family and then my friend bursts my happy little bubble, leading me to have thoughts such as “How much time am I wasting seeing family?” or “Is my friend’s vacation really that much better than mine?”

I love holiday break as much as the next student, but I can’t help but feel a little left out when I realize my friends are going on luxurious to Europe and I’m stuck at home. Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing about what’s going on with my friends’ lives but the obnoxious tone makes me want to run in the opposite direction and never want to ask my friend a question again.

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I love holiday break as much as the next student, but I can’t help but feel a little left out when I realize my friends are going on luxurious to Europe and I’m stuck at home.

— Catie Campagnino ’26

I love holiday break as much as the next student, but I can’t help but feel a little left out when I realize my friends are going on luxurious to Europe and I’m stuck at home.I realized that people don’t always think about the tone of voice they are using, especially when they are with their friends, but I wish people would think a little bit harder about what they say before they say it even when they are with close friends.

love holiday break as much as the next student, but I can’t help but feel a little left out when I realize my friends are going on luxurious to Europe and I’m stuck at home; as great as it is being stuck at home, I don’t need people rubbing their Parisian cafés and fancy bracelets from all over the world in my face. I feel like my friends are seeing the world and I’m just at home missing out on everything.

I really hope that people could just take a second and think about their tone of voice when talking about vacation plans, and have the self awareness to understand that you may be excluding others when you talk about them in an upstart, braggy tone.