Gallivanting about with friends in varying states of drunkenness can be some of the best memories of your college years. While not everyone experiences alcohol in the same way, here are some of the common threads I have had the pleasure to come across in my year and a half of drinking.
1. Anticipated Giddiness
You and your friends are going out on a Friday night! You’ve planned this night weeks in advance. Throughout the week you've exchanged texts assuring one another that you ‘CANNOT WAIT’ for this night to arrive. You’re so ready, so pumped -- and only slightly anxious about the money you will undoubtedly spend.
2. Stupid Giddy
The Night of Nights has arrived! You have chosen where to meet up with your pals. The happy dance and accompanying clapping and hugging ensue. Once the greetings are made you set out for the place with the alcohol.
3. Alcohol-Induced Overconfidence
Once you and your friends have started drinking, any inhibitions you had when you walked through the door completely slip away. You look around like: Oh, we own this place.
4. Laughter
As you’re all sitting around reminiscing, catching up and joking around, the volume of the conversation tends to rise without anyone within your party realizing it. Once you do realize it, it becomes very difficult to lower it once again. Anything that is slightly funny seems suddenly hilarious. It is at this point that the boundaries of budding friendships are knocked aside. A common experience of uninhibited laughter solidifies new relationships and fortifies old ones.
5. Physical Stunts
It is at this point that physical boundaries too are crossed. As you talk with one another you find yourselves reaching out to touch one another’s arms and hugging one another more frequently. Your own posture is more relaxed and snuggling in the same seat as your friend is the most natural thing in the world. While these kinds of intimacies may be normal for you even when you are quite sober, those who are less affectionate in their sobriety may know the difference I am talking about.
It is at this point that the feats of strength also tend to come about. Now that you are all well-acquainted and caught up with one another, why not a nice arm wrestle? There’s something satisfying about testing one’s strength from an awkwardly unnatural position of elbows on the table, clasping your opponent’s palm and forcing it backwards to make contact with the other side of the table. Those who would not normally partake in such a battle find themselves giving it a go. When you all decide to seek out another location the classic piggy-back ride is practically expected. You hop onto one another’s backs fearlessly.
It is within this same phase that the raucous dancing commences. There is a dance floor. There is music. The inebriated will dance. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, you feel the music and don’t worry about making a fool of yourself -- because everyone is making a fool of themselves.
6. Inopportune Sleepiness
This is when you begin to fall asleep on the bus or car ride home. You’ve danced your heart out. Your legs are sore, and you’re thirsty. You cannot keep your eyes open. Luckily there is a friend.. or stranger (?) to lean your head on.
6. Extreme Hunger
As soon as you return to your dorm, you find those Wheat Thins and you mindlessly eat half of the box before you realize what you have done. You don't even regret it. (And if you have the presence of mind, you drink an entire bottle of water.
7. Opportune Sleepiness
After nourishing your alcohol-filled body with the appropriate amount of salty snacks and H2O, you collapse in bed and fall asleep within the time it takes your head to hit the pillow and for you to pull the sheets up all the way.
Such is a night of unchecked freedom when ridiculous, hilarious memories are made. These nights are liberating in their ability to allow you to escape from the worries and responsibilities of your daily life.
Enjoy them and remember that the best parts of these nights are the people with whom you share them!
Cheers!
