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Coming off of three nights in a row of partying last weekend, I was depleted. I mean that in the full sense of the word: physically famished, borderline sick, dehydrated and exhausted. I was also mentally and emotionally spent. I didn’t know what to think of the weekend and I sure as hell didn’t want to think about the week ahead.
Don’t get me wrong, I had an unbelievable weekend. Thursday was the first time I had gone out in weeks. Right away I met a bunch of new friends and we rolled over to somewhere on 12th. After a rather hungover Friday full of classes, I rallied and went out for round two after multiple pre-games, this time with a big group of friends. Saturday saw much of the same: waking up at noon, doing practically nothing, and then going back out for round three where I ended up seeing the light of the sun gradually crest over the couch I was crammed on to.
Riveting, I know. By the time I made it back home on Sunday I was exhausted, and the day’s events didn’t provide much of a reason to be in a good mood. I had hours of work to do, which invoked the usual imagery of books and papers stretching into the sky beyond my reach. I groaned and complained and eventually sat my pathetic ass down into a chair at Norlin for hours.
Walking back from Norlin that night, I actually had the time and the mental capacity to think about the implications of going out three nights in a row. How had it effected my work? Not well. How had it effected my state of mind and body? Badly. But was it worth it?
This last question is really the one we should think about and in answering it, we have to ask ourselves others. Why did we come to Boulder? What keeps us here?
Most of us might say the school’s academic programs. But are we being fully honest with ourselves about the factors that influenced why we came here? Boulder has a killer reputation as a party school, thanks in part to Playboy’s choice of CU as the number one party school in the nation in 2011. I’m Schmacked has come to Boulder on multiple occasions, where the student body wears the media coverage as a kind of badge of honor. Just ask your friends from back home about Boulder, and they might say something about smoking weed and partying.
This reflects a larger theme. We, as a society, no longer treat universities as intellectual communities. We don’t see colleges as places of intellectual development, cultural criticisms or cutting-edge research. Instead, we are apt to think about the university as a place to come that is, above all, fun, and the search for fun is a major influence in high schoolers’ decisions to enroll here. Universities know this, and, being institutions that compete for students, take measures to attract student enrollment. We see this in the overhauling of the gym and the iconic Ralphie-shaped pool, as well as the constant development of campuses’ buildings and dorms.
The type of fun that draws students here isn’t compatible with higher learning and 10-plus hour days of studying. At college, mainstream student culture revolves around drinking and partying, which usually facilitates anti-intellectual environments revolving around socializing.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have fun and socialize here. What I’m saying is that most of us didn’t come here exclusively to have fun, and we need to remind ourselves of that. We came here for the prestigious departments of Aerospace Engineering and Law, study abroad opportunities and the plethora of clubs. But we also came here for the natural beauty, the value of a degree, the dorm life, skiing and yes, the partying.
If you came to CU for the “classic” college experience that Animal House tells us we should have, don’t let me stop you. But that’s not why we’re supposed to be here. We’re here to define our values and secure credentials in an environment of higher learning.
We can never forget that being here is a privilege and to use this time as wisely as possible. Because after four years, the opportunity is gone. We know this and yet we repeat the same mistakes. I am no exception.
So if you find that you’re repeatedly asking yourself, “was it worth it?” after a long weekend or if you generally struggle to find the balance between fun and intellectual growth, get yourself involved in student culture outside of the mainstream. Clubs are the most concrete way to get involved here. There are well over a hundred of them with interests spanning from journalism to skiing to politics and everything in between.
Personally, being engaged in student organizations and events has been extremely rewarding. I’ve played bass in a jazz combo, participated in the annual Conference on World Affairs, attended numerous on-campus lectures and trainings and learned more about how I’m affected by the choices of student government. All of these things have enriched my college experience and being influenced by the brilliant faculty and students of CU has given me a very positive sense of community that I would not otherwise have known exists.
Perhaps the easiest way to participate in alternative student culture — that is, culture outside of the partying norms — is to engage in thought-provoking conversation with your friends. Critique the school and the world around you, choose what you like and think about how you want to change the things that need changing. It starts here, with our own student culture at CU.
College is the perfect place to learn, grow and define who you want to be — because ultimately, it’s up to our generation to determine the future of our communities. How the hell are we supposed to do that if all we focus on is socializing?
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Grant Stringer at grant.stringer@colorado.edu.
