The Case for Chilling Out, Maxing and Relaxing All Cool
Would you rather be in bed with a bag of Doritos and Netflix or spend the night with someone else’s vomit on your shoes?
By Aliyah Thomas, Mount Saint Mary College
You’ve finally made it to Friday!
Let down your hair, channel your inner Rebecca Black and tell your professors to “have a great weekend” even if you don’t really mean it. You’ve probably spent the morning and almost all of your afternoon in class, so you start positing how you might spend the evening after dinner. You could spend a night in, catching up on everything you missed on “Empire” this week, or go out to that house party everyone’s been subtly plugging all over social media and your school’s nightlife page.
There is more than one route to take when the weekend comes, so going out is not the only option you have. I don’t have the grounds to completely bad-mouth a night out, because none of my experiences have been as god-awful as that one scene in “Boogie Nights,” but I’m partial to almost anything that doesn’t mean staying out past 9pm. I value me-time above all else, and I’m a natural-born hermit of sorts, but with a solid case for a good night out, your chances become somewhat less slimmer in getting me out of bed—I wouldn’t count on it though.
Some people don’t understand how staying in could possibly be better than throwing back shots at the bar or dancing the night away under a set of rainbow strobe lights, but it can be. Like almost everything else in life, the homebody experience is what you make of it.
Sometimes you’ll have the time of your life with a great group of friends, but staying in for the night could be so much better than that. Here are three reasons (for the conflicted masses) to kick it at home tonight.
1. War and Peace (and Quiet)
Silence is the most disrespected virtue in college—sometimes even the library can’t save you from the person whose best attempt at a whisper is nowhere near an inside voice. While you can’t exactly sneak onto the stage and fiddle with the volume dials on a DJ’s turntable, at least you can manage the noise around you at home. (Except if you live in a dormitory, because good luck with having filo dough for walls.)
Want it quiet? Cool. Want it loud? Go balls out. Shatter your eardrums. That’s cool, too. Try asking the DJ to make the bass drop in that one dubstep song just a little softer, and he’ll probably pretend not to hear you with his ears under those needlessly crooked headphones.
With all the drums and heavy basslines on full blast, how does anyone expect you to hear anything except the voice in your head telling you that you should’ve stayed home? Does anyone really want to be screaming all night just to find out where the bathroom is? Your voice will be gone the next morning and, if you scream ‘til you drop on Thirsty Thursday, your Friday morning will be spent feigning laryngitis in class.
Clubs have a sort of heavy-handedness when it comes to noise and overcrowding. While some people thrive on their senses being overworked by loud music and unwelcomed physical contact on the dancefloor, maybe you’re not down with the noise or being groped by the same clammy hands every week.
2. You Can Be Yourself
You don’t always have to look outside of yourself to have fun.
That doesn’t mean that the best version of you can’t be found bathed in polychrome moonflower lights in the middle of the dancefloor, because that might be the case. Or perhaps the best version of you can be found in bed, wrapped in a down comforter and sleeping like a baby. Sometimes sleep is hard to come by in college, so go for it, Rip Van Winkle.
Sleep for twenty years! The dirty toilets and extra-long bathroom line will still be there waiting when you wake up.
The amount of time it usually takes to get dressed up can be better spent getting two or three episodes deep into “Stranger Things,” because the best thing about staying in is that it takes less than one minute to put pajamas on. Better yet, you can cut back on that time even more if you just skip the clothes. Who’s going to judge you if all you want to wear around the house are fur-lined slippers and a bedsheet? There’s no one to impress (and likewise, no one to disappoint) when you stay in for the night. Rock on, bed head. Rock on.
And what if you just don’t enjoy going out? Staying home means that you don’t have to suffer through all the empty interactions you’re destined to have. There’s no putting on that false front and faking a smile when those house music mashups take up half the night, because maybe what you really wanted, but would never say aloud, was an hour of Dirty South rap. At home by yourself, no one has to know that your alter ego religiously spits fire from Ludacris’ “Word of Mouf” album.
3. Plain and Simple: You Just Don’t Feel Like Going Out
Maybe you’re tired, behind on schoolwork or actually sick with laryngitis. Whatever the case may be, you’ve chosen to stay home. You’ll come across friends who respect your decision, but you’ll also come across those friends who guilt trip you into a night you regret no sooner than leaving with them. You are the only person who gets to decide whether you get yourself pretty and primped for a night out or pajama-clad for a quieter night in.
Peer pressure is very real, and despite the nosy, never-ending probing from your friends, don’t feel like you have to rack your brain for an explanation to please them. It’s not like you’ve skipped a final exam or nixed month-old plans just for fun; you just really want to stay in, and that’s a solid enough reason. Everything that you miss tonight—the space invaders at the club, the terrible music and the hollow smiles you’ll forge (for when your patience runs thin towards the end of the night)—will definitely be there next weekend.
