Friday night. It always starts out with such promise. You make your plans, buy your booze, and the magic begins. But everyone knows that Friday night comes at a cost.
The hangover.
No, I don't mean waking up with a large feline in your bathroom and losing your best friend. I'm talking about the actual hangovers where you genuinely feel like you might keel over and die. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we take that last shot knowing we will pay for it in the morning? These questions cannot be answered because if they could - We wouldn't be out every Friday night.
I've had some heinous hangovers in my day. One that comes to mind involves a trash can, a public place, and yes lots of 'public' around. Oh college. However, the worst hangovers are post graduation. It's like your liver knows you aren't in college anymore and suddenly taking a handle of vodka to the face becomes a challenge. What's with that? In fact, my first day as a college graduate was spent laying on my best friend's couch downing Gatorade and Advil.
What a time to be alive.
My friends also acknowledge that hangovers worsen after you leave undergrad. I use to go out on Friday nights, get in around three, and be up by eight o'clock to teach dance. I was invincible. Fast forward three years, add a degree, and I need an entire day to recover. I'm not the only one and my gracious friends decided to chime in on the subject.
Please note that due to privacy reasons all names have been changed. And by privacy, I mean that my friends have jobs they would like to keep.
VERONICA
Veronica went out for a dinner with her father and stepmother basically as a pregame before meeting our other friends. It was 1/2 price bottle of wine night, (at a restaurant I shall not name but it rhymes with Schmides), and Veronica obviously needed five glasses of wine. Oh and two shots of Fireball just to be safe.
“Shane picked me up to go... I don’t even know Shane knows. I woke up the next morning and couldn’t move one inch without puking. My hangover lasted three days.”
BRAXTON
Now this story of course involves me. Also, maybe some industrial sized trash cans, a beach, an obscene amount of jaywalking, and maybe an innocent pizza delivery man. MAYBE. That went down as an epic adventure, but the following morning was death. Braxton couldn't even get out of the bed. For breakfast he came downstairs sporting sunglasses and a green face. He did order food, but we all know how that went down. Well...Up?
JACKIE
“I didn’t even know what a hangover was until I turned 23”
These are just the beginning of a litany of hangover adventures I can share with you. I already posed the question of why we do it, and we know there is no answer. Or is there? Is a hangover the small, (okay HUGE), price to pay for a good night out?
Yes.
I mean no pain no gain right? Sure, it is completely possible to go out and have fun without getting a hangover. However, who wants to blog about that? I don't. The reasons why millennials can put up with the hangover is because we want to live. Don't you want to hit 50 and look back on your twenties with a smile on your face?
I do.
Yes, we have to deal with the hangover, but we still go out over and over again. We want to make memories. No, not just for Instagram, but moments we can look back on with no regrets. Or maybe a just couple involving Tequila.