How To Have The Best Weekend Of Your Young Adult Life

Leave work Friday not knowing what the weekend has in store for you. You’re getting drinks that night with a friend but other than that, you’re pretty open. Feel slight anxiety about this. Sometimes your weekdays are such a blur that you forget to actually figure out what’s going on for the weekend. Then you wake up on Saturday not knowing what to do with yourself and the whole rest of your free time just drags on. On Sunday night, you’re almost relieved to go back to your routine the next day. At least then you won’t feel bad if you don’t do anything fun.

Sometimes, however, the stars align and you end up having a weekend so good that it feels like some hazy dream. I’m talking here about the kind of weekends that are spontaneous, that just take you from one place to the next like a 48-hour rollercoaster, and then spit you out on a Monday morning. Great weekends can feel like a drug and when it’s over, you’re definitely going to have a comedown.

So often it seems like everyone is too busy to hang out and to make plans you need a two week notice. But newsflash: No one (who’s not married with kids) is that busy. On The Best Weekend Of Your Adult Life, social gatherings just fall into your lap. On Friday, everyone decides to come to the same bar or party and you end up having one of those special nights where everyone feels close and connected. You wonder why this doesn’t happen more often but then you  realize that if it did, it wouldn’t feel so special. The night leaves you with an electric buzz and you sleep soundly.

The Best Weekend Of Your Young Adult Life will remind you of your youth. It’s hard to explain what it means to feel young when, in fact, you are young.  In a sense, all it does is make you realize that being spontaneous is the ultimate luxury. The fact that you could spend over two days running around with your friends acting foolish, only coming home to change and maybe catch five hours of sleep, is proof that you’re still young. We forget that there will be a point when that will end, when we will have someone else to answer to. Don’t take these kinds of weekends for granted. When they happen, you need to hold them tight. You need to hold on to these days that are covered in margaritas, laughter, and hickeys for dear life because they will leave you.

On Saturday morning, wake up to a text inviting you to brunch with many of the friends you spent Friday night with. Even though you only got five hours of sleep and feel like hell, you’re running on adrenaline so you go. You leave your apartment and meet them for food and conversation and maybe drinks I guess, who knows, do whatever you feel like. The meal lasts for hours and when you step outside to leave, the sun makes you wince and you realize it’s already almost 4 o’clock. You vaguely recall having stuff to do but you’re not ready to ruin the buzz of the weekend, so you split off with a best friend and go to the park. Lay in the sun, feel your bones become jelly, eat a popsicle. Define leisure. Listen to music and creep on all the babes. Then feel the sun start to go down and begin to pack up.

Make your way to your friend’s apartment to cook dinner. Put your feet out the window and lay in their bed. Contemplate going home after you eat because you need sleep but ultimately decide against it. You know the second you get to your apartment, which will somehow already feel foreign to you, you’ll just start to feel lonely and wish you were still riding the wave of the weekend.  Stay out.

The second night will be even more intense than the last one–perhaps even more so because you’re slightly delirious. This time you’ll still be surrounded by a group of people you love but maybe the setting will change. A house party? A stranger’s home? A boozy dinner party? Whatever you’d like. It’s YOUR weekend. Well, sort of. What makes these weekends so great is that they’re often out of your hands. You just go where you’re told and are pleasantly surprised when you have an amazing time.

Maybe you kiss someone, maybe you don’t. It doesn’t really matter though because the weekend is more about celebrating your friendships and yourself. They’re about detaching yourself from your anxieties and feeling a sense of togetherness. They’re about letting go and being the lovely mess you deserve to be. You should feel safe and secure, even in the “mistakes” you  make, because you’re always surrounded by people who love you.

Sleep over at your friend’s house. Normally you hate sleeping in someone else’s bed but it feels right this time. You wake up next to your best friend feeling so happy you did. So much better than waking up alone or next to a one-night stand. Let the whole day go by at a languid pace. You’re still with people but things are calming down. You’re preparing for a soft landing.

When it’s all over, you’ll initially feel sad returning to a reality of boring work and sometimes even more boring weekends. Life doesn’t always feel so alive, so when it does, it sort of acts like a shock to your whole being. Take comfort though in knowing that you had the shock. Take comfort in knowing that there will be other weekends that will move with an electricity. You’ll feel alive again. TGIF!