It is your favorite day of the year. It is the most anticipated holiday. For college kids all over the nation, it signifies the brink of a very long and much-needed break. But more than that, it signifies the forthcoming of the best night of the semester, with the potential to be the best night of your college career, if you play your cards right.
Dead Day.
Or "Stop Day," because apparently some colleges call it that. "Dead Day" seems more fitting to me because on actual Dead Day, you actually may be dead as a result of how hard you partied the night before.
I'm not quite sure why college kids pick Dead Day Eve to go harder than they have the whole semester. Maybe it's because it serves as one of the last big bangs before the school year is over. Nevertheless, if you're reading this, you're probably simultaneously thinking about what you're going to wear, who you're going to contact to ask for alcohol, when you're going to squeeze in a nap before the festivities, etc.
Here are the stages of your favorite day, broken down in the realest way.
1. You wake up on Dead Day Eve. It feels like Christmas morning. You do one of those stretchy-yawny things as you rise out of the bed; today is the day...
2. You go through your daily routine, knowing fully-well what's about to go down in a few hours.
3. You still have to go to class, you know...It's the last day of the semester that you have to get your butt to lecture, which makes it all the more difficult. 
4. When your professors tell you to be safe tonight because they know....
5. You finally get home and take a look at your closet to view your options.
6. It's 3pm, but you still begin to contact your friends and draft a plan.
7. You scour your contact list to see who's of age or who has a good fake. And then, you grovel. "Please. I need this. You know what tonight is."
8. You put on your outfit for the night. You change said outfit at least 4 different times. You then but back on original outfit, because you look flawless in anything, really.
9. You arrive at the pregame and Work From Home is playing. Your friends look amazing, your plan is set, and you can't stop dancing.
10. When one of your friends calls the Designated Driver but you're not near on the level that you want to be.
11. When you finally feel it so hard that the alcohol transports you to all new level.
12. You finally arrive at your destination and you and your friends are too hype.
13. When you see someone attractive and you're all too confident.
14. There comes a point in the night where the invincibility has worn off and you and all of your friends are emotional but still trying to look cute.
15. You finally arrive home, by yourself, with your friends, with a hot hookup... it doesn't matter; this is inevitably how you feel when you finally lay down: 
16. The loft and house parties have died down, but there's at least one place that's still poppin', and that's Taco Bell. You can't forget to hit that up. It will absorb some of the toxins, and more importantly, it will make you very happy.
17. You wake up the next morning. You are disoriented, you are confused, but mostly, you are dead. Happy Dead Day! Time to study. Or chug water and pop ibuprofen in bed.
18. The following day, you ponder the idea of vowing to sobriety but...
19. When you do great on your finals the following week even though you destroyed yourself the weekend prior.
Turn up or transfer, fam.
But more importantly, be safe, call sober rides, don't consume any substance on an empty stomach, watch after your friends, and try your hardest to make semi-smart decisions. Let's make this a good one.
