With Halloween coming up in the next few days, there are likely to be many celebrations of all sorts this weekend. If you're college age or younger, you might be trick-or-treating (which is perfectly shameless, by the way- hey, free candy). But if you're a college student, you also might likely attend at least one party of some sorts, whether it's this weekend leading up to Halloween or on the actual day of Halloween. There's nothing wrong with that, but however you choose to celebrate, I want to encourage everyone to make smart and safe decisions.

As surprising as this may sound, given how introverted I typically am, I have quite a fair share of partying experience. I know that sounds crazy; I hardly ever go out on weekends and I really don't like parties very much when I do go to them because I tend to have a difficult time socializing with everyone there. Since turning 21, I have rarely even gone out to bars; in fact, I think I was genuinely more excited about partying before turning 21! But honestly this is because the majority of my partying experience comes from my semester abroad last year (and a phase my friends and I went through in our sophomore year, though even then we didn't go to a lot of actual parties per se, just partied on our own- and when we did go to parties I never found them fun). My friends from my school in Paris and I spent Halloween in Budapest on our school's fall break trip, and the drinking age all around Europe is generally 18, so needless to say last Halloween was quite a wild one for me. It's typical, at least in the experience of myself and others I've talked to, to want to really take advantage of the partying lifestyle when you study abroad or travel in general. So I wouldn't say I have a crap ton of partying experience, but definitely enough to know how to play it safe!

That being said, I want to share some tips I've come to learn about safe partying.

Always make sure you're sticking by someone's side.

Remember the "buddy system" we were taught at every field trip or kids' program ever growing up? Yeah, well it still works. If you're at a party, club, or bar, or otherwise somewhere that's crowded and full of mostly people you don't know, the key to staying safe is the buddy system. Don't walk around alone, don't go to get a drink alone, don't walk to the bathroom alone, don't go home alone- and as much as it sucks to say this, especially if you're female. During my time abroad, whenever I'd be out at a bar or club with my friends and had to use the bathroom, my female friends and I would always make sure to go in groups, and I'd stick with my group of friends the entire time we'd be out at the place. I had too many uncomfortable experiences with creepy men trying things on me at these places when I was always by my friends' sides; I don't want to think about how much further those encounters could have gone had I been alone at any moment.

Know your limits.

Know how much alcohol your body can handle and stick to it. If you surpass it, make sure your friends are prepared to take care of you, but try not to drink so much that you vomit or pass out. Of course, if you haven't had much drinking experience, I understand it can be hard at first to tell what your limits are. Sometimes even if you do have quite a bit of drinking experience, it can be hard to tell because you might try an alcohol you haven't drunk very much or at all before. In these cases, I suggest stop drinking after you feel somewhere between tipsy and legitimately drunk. In other words, stop drinking when you feel a strong buzz or a really warm feeling in your head, but you're still coherent enough to be aware of your surroundings. Trust me- do not go past this, unless you want to forget half your night. Anything past heavily tipsy, or even at the most borderline drunk, is not fun. Being that far gone will just give you pounding headaches, make you extremely sleepy and probably wanting to cry, and will most likely give you a nasty hangover in the morning. (Fun fact: I made this mistake during my Halloween adventure in Budapest last year, because we went to a club and split among ourselves a few bottles of this vodka that I can't stand, but I figured out that the bar at this club would put fruity sweetener syrup in our alcohol for no extra cost, so I took advantage of that, albeit a little too much...and had my very first- and thankfully only ever- hangover the next day.)

Make sure you're keeping an eye on your friends, too.

Of course, it shouldn't be your responsibility to fully watch over anyone. You are all adults, equally capable of taking care of yourselves. But you all should make a point to still somewhat look out for each other. Just check on each other now and then to affirm that no one is getting out of control. If you sense that a friend is too far gone to the point where they may cause harm to themselves or others, do what you can to keep them from having anything more to drink. If they are incoherent, sick, or passing out, be sure to stay by their side and get them somewhere where they can lie down. Giving them water to drink will help. If they vomit, get them as close to a bathroom, trash bag or garbage can as you can, and try to make sure they don't choke on themselves. Do not leave their side after that. If you need to, help them get undressed or in the shower. Don't let a highly intoxicated friend try to walk anywhere alone. If you suspect a friend may have alcohol poisoning or be in danger from drinking too much, call 911.

4. Always be aware of your drinks.

Don't take drinks from a random person you don't know or from someone whom you did not see make the drink before handing it to you. If you are somewhere with a bar, watch your drink being made after you order it. If you're at a BYOB party, try to make your own drink yourself or watch anyone who wants to make one for you. Don't leave your drink lying around on its own if you need to leave the room to go to the bathroom or anything- ask a friend, or at least someone you know well, to hold on to it for you. And of course, be certain to have your hands, or at least your eyes, on your drink at all times. If you suspect there's a chance your drink was tampered with, don't continue drinking it. Unfortunately, this is another precaution especially important for us females because we've all heard how easy it is for drugs, particularly date-rape drugs, to be slipped into our drinks even a second we look away. However, word has been circulating around on the Internet for a while now that there has been the development of a color-changing nail polish that can help women sense if their drinks have been roofied.

If you want to participate in drugs other than alcohol, do your best to be smart about it.

Don't mix any drugs, even just weed, with alcohol. If you're already extremely drunk, do not get high. If you're already extremely high, do not get drunk. Being a little bit of both high and drunk at the same time won't kill you, but too much of both, or too much of one with even just some of the other, can be dangerous. I don't advise trying hard drugs to be honest, but if you do choose to, all I can say is just be sure you're cautious and don't ingest too much of it.

Be safe with any potential hookups.

If you meet someone that you decide you want to hook up with (be it either sex or just making out)? That's great! However, you need to be self-aware in this situation too. If you're going to make out with someone and you've just met them, you probably don't want to go off completely alone with them- go somewhere where you two might not be completely surrounded by people, for example in a corner or on a couch, but still in eyesight of the rest of the folks in the vicinity. Otherwise, it might make it too easy for a simple makeout session to quickly turn into something you don't necessarily want, and it might be difficult to stop the situation if you're alone, especially if one or both of you is highly intoxicated. However, if you do end up deciding to actually hook up with someone, i.e. you go home with them or bring them home with you after leaving the party or bar, that obviously does warrant being alone with the person, so just verify that both of you have clearly consented. That means neither of you were pressured into it and that neither of you are extremely inebriated. I believe it's possible to have consensual sex while drunk or high, but only if both of you are drunk or high, and not extremely so. If one of you is very far gone while the other is sober or only slightly affected, that's not a situation of consent. Also, make certain you've gotten to know them fairly well by this point. I mean, you probably won't want to engage in sexual activity with someone you've literally just met without having a conversation with them yet, so it'll likely be someone you've been talking to most of the night, but just be sure they're someone you're sure you'll feel fully comfortable being alone with. And if you can, make sure your friends that you went out with know what the person looks like in case anything does come up. Keep your friends updated on your safety after leaving them and contact them right away in the event you need to get out of the situation quickly.

There may be plenty more advice on safe partying out there, but these tips are all the most vital ones I could think of to cover here. I don't even have experience with some of the aspects of partying that I mentioned here, to be honest- I just wanted to dish out advice on all the ways to be safe that I could come up with, based on what I know about society and my friends' experiences, because I know it will help some of you out there! If you plan on partying this weekend, or really any weekend, I hope I've made your life a little easier. Much like sex education in our society, information on alcohol and drugs isn't taught very well to most people in their youth years- the discussions are targeted more towards just to avoid doing it rather than how to do it safely. I think it's important to discuss safe ways of going about socially "taboo" or "dangerous" things like partying and sex, rather than just shutting them down and advising not to do them- because the truth is, everyone will partake in these things at some point anyway, so why not just make sure they know how to be cautious while doing so?

I wish all of you fun and safe adventures from here on out. Happy partying, friends, and happy Halloween! Whether you decide to spend this Halloween partying, trick-or-treating, hanging with friends, or just curled up watching horror movies, I hope it's your best one yet.