The Best of Weekends and the Worst

By Tyler F

Consider the weekend. Now assume campus life is black and white. Half of the students can’t wait. The other half can’t prolong the weekdays enough. Objectified yet?

In this poorly conceived model of college life, there are “Partiers” and “Netflixers”. Then people typically read further in to the meanings, social and antisocial. This is the cue for the cast of “Freaks and Geeks” to knock on the door.

For those who don’t perceive these terms, good for you! For the extremely imaginative and self-analytical: reality isn’t half as cruel.

Now, assumptions should be thrown out the window. Others drew those lines to define and simplify. By no means are they natural law. For more realistic ideas, preexisting lines have to be erased -and why not add a few personal ones. Partiers and Netflixers? More people see as going out and staying in.

When people go out, they generally go to parties. At parties there are tons of girls and guys to meet. In the ideal situation, you revel in the noise of the speakers and elevate to ecstasy. You may never leave the living room but still score a ton of desirable numbers.

Sorry to say, some parties aren’t ideal. Maybe not enough people come because it’s too far away. Or there’s the perfect amount of strangers but the number of familiar faces isn’t quite up to par. In either case, it might have been more social to invite a few friends over, and to have simply stayed in.

There it is. You didn’t meet enough people going out, or you didn’t reach the climactic “good time” that was the goal at the beginning of the night. The goal is to have the most fun possible, right? Reconsider going out as the best candidate on the list.

Though staying in is more often attributed to seclusion, there is not a lonelier place than standing alone in an unfamiliar crowd. The accompaniment of small groups of great friends can provide more social relief than anyone you just met can provide.

The representation of stay-at-home hedonists as “Netflixers” and couch potatoes puts home in a particularly shallow light. It seems to say that those who stay home aren’t doing anything at all. True, it’s hard to find a student who’s not guilty of vegetating at some point or another; however, it’s inaccurate to assume that those who stay in most weekends are simply maintaining that state.

Sometimes staying in can simply mean exceeding academic expectations by studying during the off days. Undoubtedly these aren’t the students who cram. For the procrastinators, staying in can mean spending the night with a paramour or pursuing side interests with friends. In any case, a movie night in good company is never a bad option.

In the end, moderation is key. There is no better way to find what’s most enjoyable than experiencing both. There is no single right way to spend weekends. If you are embarrassed about “partying too hard” or “having a lazy weekend” though, remember: if your ideas of the “perfect weekend” are professed, you may never discover the others who believe the exact same thing.

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