This past weekend wasn’t like the ones we’ve come to expect, where fellow college students wander around heading towards a friend’s place, a party in mind. This weekend started off normally but then the tell-tale signs of a desolate few days of boredom and isolation began to grow in abundance.

My “spidey-sense” began to tingle after I started asking my friends what our plans were for later in the night and all their responses were the same, “I don’t know.” This didn’t bide well with me and I knew I was in for a lackluster weekend.

Apartment complexes were cleared, parking lots deserted and neighbors who commonly relax on their porches while smoking and chatting were missing — their patio furniture vacant. Whether it was the cold that scared them off or a long night of festivities from Halloween, our campus was left derelict. Those who made their presence known were left hopeless and continued to search for some kind of social gathering in vain.

From the usual fun and social excitement, everyone just seemed to disappear. At first it was hard to cope with, the weekend was going to be spent doing dull things rather than the always exciting partying and enticing social gatherings, but after accepting the inevitable I found myself still enjoying my time in ways I haven’t in a while. Instead of letting the weekend go to waste, I allowed myself return to my roots and have fun in ways I haven’t for ages. Before excessive drinking and legendary nights, there were old friends and activities that were forgotten some time ago.

My weekend consisted of catching up on much needed sleep, which is usually put on the back burner for a desire to drink an irresponsible amount of alcohol and diving into some campus mischief. It also included getting together with old friends, not the usual party types, to indulge in gluttonous amounts of exotic foods at the International Food Festival, followed up by hours of the latest video games. This time together allowed us to not only stuff ourselves until we were a few bites away from comas, but it gave us a reason to catch up on old times and reminisce of days past.

This slow weekend taught me a few valuable lessons. The first was my ways of constant partying aren’t always the coolest thing to do, even the simplest of things can leave a college student with an enjoyable weekend. The second lesson was a long day of events can put you to sleep quicker than any one night of partying. Because of a full day of events for the first time in what seemed like years, I woke up before noon on Saturday and Sunday.

For once the weekend didn’t revolve around stressing about parties or having to deal with drunken strangers and vomiting friends. The moral of the story is to take time away from your routine partying schedules and actually give yourself a weekend every so often to relax and let your body recover without the necessity of recovering. Don’t stumble across it like I did this past weekend, because you won’t appreciate it until it’s already gone.

Are you going to give yourself a weekend to relax? Let us know and e-mail your plan to viewpoint@technicianonline.com.