Okay. So I only have like less than a half hour to blog right now, but I feel this is like at the top of my mind right now so bombs away.
The challenge of balancing school and partying dramatically grown more difficult over the past few weeks. I find myself regularly going out on Thursdays now, I find myself missing classes and ROTC jargon due to the extent of my partying. Which means I have to tone it down. It's really no big deal, I just gotta focus.
College changes several aspects of partying, which I find fascinating. First and foremost, college parties have removed status from the equation. Do you remember back in the high school days when having more than one party to go to at a certain time meant you were at the top? Everyone plays it off in high school like they don't care if they get invited to parties, but deep down EVERYONE gets excited over it. Now in college there is simply no status involved with going to a party (there is if you do it right, but I'll get into that at a later date). Now that there are parties every night, and finding them is easy, you can party as much as you want to and no one gives a fuck! Your friends may see you as an "alcoholic" if you party every single night, and you may "drop out" due to your lack of academic discipline, but you certainly aren't viewed socially superior in any way.
Second change in college partying: Responsibility. The entire aspect of responsibility has been amplified by a factor of ten. You have to govern yourself on how much to drink, when to drink, keeping out of a bad situation, etc. Of course high school partying had no or little parental advising, i.e. no one was telling you what to do; but it's easy to let the fact that you have to physically see your parents the following day govern you into doing the right thing and not going overboard. It's 8:30am on a Wednesday morning and I could get hammered right now. Without much trouble I'd probably find people to do it with. Put on some Roscoe Dash and BAM you have a party at 8:30am Wednesday morning. In high school the simple fact that you're constantly appeasing your parents even at a subconscious level will keep you from partying right now. But in college, who is to tell you what to do? Long story short you have to govern yourself, which seems completely obvious and is something that every adult has been telling you about college since 8th grade, but so many people completely miss the point. It's more than going to class sober, it's retraining your subconsciousness to stop you from doing stupid shit; you will no longer get in immediate "trouble" for your actions.
The combination of those two aspects I present lead me to actually differ from partying. It is difficult. Senior year of high school has trained me to be an opportunist when it comes to alcohol consumption. Will I completely abandon partying for the rest of my career? Probably not because that's not the point of my theology. But since I no longer party for rebellious and social-hierarchical reasons then what purpose does my beloved partying hold? I'll figure that out later. Until then...
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