Why We Should Never Regret A Night Out

After coming home from a semester my parents always greet me with hugs and kisses. But then, after all the love and affection, comes the lectures.

My mom always says things like, “You look exhausted! Why do you push yourself to the limit?”

Yes, I am incredibly exhausted. Any other student can agree that a semester can beat you up with all the stress of grades, internships, commitments and, on top of that, going out every single night that we can. We have all had those times after a long horrible day when all we wanted to do was cuddle up in bed but we’ve ended up being persuaded by our friends to get dressed and get our butts out. We wake up tired, dead and wanting nothing but sleep, but we never really regret being dragged out.

So why do I push myself to the limit? Why does any Penn State student push his or herself to the limit? Why do we go out no matter what the circumstances: rain, snow, early morning 8 a.m., mono, assignment due at midnight? What the heck are we doing to ourselves?

I think a lot of students can agree when I say that no matter what, this is why I’ve never regretted a night out:

I’ve never regretted dragging myself out when I don’t feel well. And no I don’t enjoy being sick 24/7 and I don’t enjoy not being able to breath through my nose ever or waking up with mono. But it is true that my body will never be able to bounce back from illness as quickly as it does now. Most of us just chug Emergency C and take our gummies vitamins we’re good for the weekend.

I’ve never regretted going out because that’s how we meet our best friends. Either we’ve peed together with them, picked out a song together to play at the party, helped them tip over Jungle Juice jug to get the final remnants out of the bottom, or done something else ridiculous together that made you realize, “Yes. This person is my best friend.”

I never regret going out even after one of those nights that I completely embarrassed myself. Yes, I did some questionable things and sent some text messages that make me quiver but I don’t regret any of it. I’ve learned from it all, and oh man do they make for some funny stories.

I don’t regret going out. I don’t regret pushing myself to limit. I go to an amazing school and going out let’s me meet all the amazing and different people that go here with me. It doesn’t matter if you are an engineering major, acting major, in Greek life, on a THON committee, play football, play volleyball, etc. When the song “Turn Down For What” comes on, we are all jamming out together as one.

Some of the best nights that I have had are the nights that I didn’t even want to go out. I wanted to stay in my apartment and bask in my loneliness, but I’ve learned that building real relationships with people is what makes me genuinely happy, and I think most students can agree.

So that’s why we go out. We are living this one wild and crazy life as young adults while we still can. We are building memories, friendships and just being a little stupid, but there is nothing wrong with that. Years from now we will look back at our college careers and smile, laugh, cry and probably die of embarrassment, but we wont regret a single second of any of it. Because we had a great freaking time.