I wonder sometimes if you can count a weekend as ‘fun’ if you can’t remember it. Kansas may not be the most exciting place in the world, but surely there’s something (or someone) that’s worth not being high or wasted for. Drinking and partying are kind of high school staples, I suppose. But it strikes me as a bit sad, to have friends not worth just simply chatting with or to not have enough creativity to come up with something new to do without breaking out the booze. Surely with crazy new ideas and great friends alcohol wouldn’t be a requirement to have fun.
Although the fact that drinking is illegal for anyone under 21 doesn’t seem to matter much in high school, most teenagers would probably welcome a lower drinking age. In Europe, the legal drinking age is 16. When I went to Europe last summer, most of the kids on my trip were ecstatic about that, and more than a few were at least a little tipsy at some point (rules of the tour forgotten, of course). Frankly, I had more fun watching them act like idiots than actually drinking myself. Of course, they really had no idea if they had fun or not, seeing as how they couldn’t remember much of the night. Personally, I would much rather remember the fun nights—otherwise all that’s left is a haze of weekend partying and the lovely reality of school. But maybe that’s just me.
I’m not by any means suggesting not partying on the weekends. Even the queen of OCD and nerdiness (meaning me) is ready to burn schoolbooks by the end of the week. I guess my definition of ‘partying’ is just a little different. Does that make me weird? Maybe. But I’ll keep my weekends they way they are—full of friends, silliness, and good memories.