Remember the days when weekends used to start Friday after school and end Sunday night? Remember how weekends used to be full of an assortment of activities, whether it was going to an athletic event, the movies, being with friends, going out on dates, having dinner with the family, bowling, amusement parks or whatever? What’s happened to all that?

Nowadays, many students start their weekends on Thursday, and the only activity other than athletic events is getting drunk at an apartment complex.Don’t get me wrong, I love to go out and have a good time, drinking or not. But for some reason, I just don’t have an interest to be at the party where everyone is going to be on the weekends.

Now I’ve heard that college is supposed to be the best years of your life, but that’s also what they said about high school. And to be quite frank, I am tired of everyone gathering at the same party just to be crammed in a 30-by-40-foot room where everyone has a cup of beer, just waiting to spill it on someone.The more you really look at the situation, it’s almost like seeing a herd of cattle being piled up for feeding time. How on earth is this situation desirable?

Aside from the immediate high school drama of having the cops called because the neighbors are complaining about the noise and traffic, there also tends to be the clique drama that never seems to fade away.

I am all for having a group of close knit friends, but when you all decide to go to a party together, be willing to socialize with new people. Even this task is difficult for someone not in a clique who’s also attending the overcrowded apartment party.

Let me clarify that I am not against going out and partying. However, the parties I am referring to are the ones that everyone talks about throughout the week because everyone is going to be there. Why on earth would you want to go somewhere that everyone is going to be to begin with?

When I go out, I like to know and get to know the people I am hanging out with. In such a small environment with an overcrowded amount of people, you’d be lucky if you could hold two conversations with people, let alone have them remember your name later on that night.

Maybe I am being unrealistic, because I admit I have held a conversation with someone and really enjoyed myself at a party like the one I am describing. But that experience seems like a shadow in the dark, and I have yet to really enjoy the company.

Is hanging out at your own house to drink with 10 of your friends, or people you haven’t met, really that bad? Of course not. I’m sure everyone reading this article has done that or does do it before advancing to the “higher level” of partying. These situations are better considered as hanging out. You are able to wear comfortable clothes, get drunk, be stupid, laugh with friends, get to know the people you are surrounded by and best of all, not have to worry about the cops being called on you because you’ve kept it low-key this weekend.

Doesn’t sound too bad, now does it?