New York is famous (or perhaps infamous) for its bustling, seemingly endless, occasionally seedy nightlife. Bars and clubs for every age and every sexual orientation procure a fascinating mixture of people and alcoholic beverages.
At least, that’s what I think it’s like?
I’m never awake to find out.
Going to bed by 10:30 PM is considered late. Going to bed by 11 o’clock is nearly unheard of. And sleeping in? Forget about it. Anything past seven in the morning feels completely excessive.
Everyone lives in their own world, shaped by their individual perspectives. My world is filled with obscene quantities of organic chemistry homework and classmates I’ll never meet outside of, well, class.
Grabbing drinks on a Friday evening (or staying in and letting your friend with the fake ID grab them for you) is startlingly commonplace.
So are the lazy weekends spend sleeping until noon, then nursing a slight (or not-so-slight) hangover while enjoying a lovely brunch with friends.
So what happens when you’re in bed on Friday by 10, and up again on Saturday by 6? The rest of the sane world isn’t quite ready to commit to actual brain functioning yet. Your friends’ brunch will be your midafternoon snack.
You are, for the most part, alone.
Except that you’re not. Even in college, with its plethora of students who study late and party later, there are people who don’t. Actually, they are everywhere. Slight introverts, early birds, or plain old sticks in the mud can be found on every campus.
Despite the whole “opposites attract” adage, people are more often attracted to similar folks. So chances are if you don’t party (or you flirted briefly with it freshman year before deciding never again) and if you don’t do brunch, your friends might not be all that interested, either.
Which is awesome, because it means having a social life isn’t some far away dream living next to your hopes of not procrastinating or not tripping over the loose cobblestones surrounding Washington Square Park. It is a reality, and it can be yours!
Granted, it might take a bit more effort to find people who would rather eat an early lunch (hey, that’s really the only way to get a spot at the Saigon Shack, anyway) than a late brunch with free mimosas (what are those again?).
But once you do, and you will, it’ll be so easy to call them at 8 or 9 o’clock on a Saturday morning just to catch up, or see the matinee of a new movie because just the thought of staying up until the 9:00 PM showing makes you exhausted.
Besides, who said you need to go to a dark, seedy bar at some ungodly hour in the morning just to get nachos? I, for one, would prefer to eat them when I am lucid and can take annoying touristy photographs.
But hey. That’s just me. And even though most of my friends at college do love to sleep in, I’m okay waiting. This is New York. Lunch is always being served somewhere.
