Opinion
Turning 21 leads to wild night downtown
March 7, 2013
Being 21-years-old is fun and pretty great I must say, but it also comes with so much more responsibility.
Last Thursday night I went out for my first “thirsty Thursday” with a friend. We had a great time with the free drinks, good music and friends all around us. The adventures you have in your life, even the struggles help make your story. Well I feel inclined to tell one of mine, for it was a roller-coaster of fun.
We started out at my place getting ready, having a couple drinks before actually going out, laughing about old memories and sharing stories, swapping out different music on our iPods. We had food in our bellies and our designated driver for the night.
The journey began at Junior’s Bar, where the ladies drink free from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. We met new people, old friends from freshman year and people not even from the Midwest area. Each of us had our drink of choice for the night and things were going smoothly.
The party then moved to Ground Zero around 11:30 p.m. or midnight. We didn’t stay there long, but the music was old school and fun to reminisce about. My roommate and I split, somewhat, a raspberry long island ice tea, which was delicious by the way, I can say that the drink put her in a happy place for the rest of the night.
As the bar started to empty out and people move on to the next bar, me and some new friends I met moved with everyone else as my roommate decided to stay put with some of her friends. We had been texting the whole night so I figured it would be fine, and she would make her way over anyways. Little did I know, I would be going back to her.
While at Boomers, it didn’t start to fill up until a good 10 minutes passed while my group and I were there. There was a cute guy I met at Ground that I even saw there, to which one of my group members dared me to go over and ask him to dance, thinking I was the shy type I’m guessing?
Obviously he didn’t know me well. I went over and danced with him, and in turn I walked away that night with $20. I had a fun night with everyone and this new guy, until I got a call from my roommate.
On the other line, instead of hearing my roommate’s voice there was a friend of hers telling me I needed to come back and get her, and take her home. Now I have always been there for all of my friends, especially her, and haven’t had to take care of someone in a while, but I don’t mind at all. Rather be safe than sorry, right? So naturally one of the new friends I made went back over to the bar with me to help, thus beginning the adventure walk home with me.
She was aggressive and pushy. She even ran, almost all the way home, me having to run after her to keep up. I made new friends on the walk home while in turn apologizing for her.
She even “slid into home plate” in front of Pizza Hut, cutting her hand up pretty bad, I knew that was going to hurt in the morning.
When I finally had a good grip on her to walk with her, friend on the other side, she began the many questions sounding like a broken record, “do you have my phone,” which of course I did.
When finally home and up the stairs, my other roommate became immediately worried and started helping. After reassuring her everything was fine and would be OK, my drunken roommate tried to take her car keys and run down the stairs. Running after her we got her to stop and back up the stairs, only after she threw her phone at the wall.
It was a challenge, but at least there was nothing to clean up and no hair to hold back. Just washing her hand off and tucking her in bed a few times was it. Except where I had to wake up after an hour to pick the lock on my bathroom door to get her out and back to her bed. I know a lot of people find babysitting annoying, and parents worry, but it was all worth it because I know she’d do the same for me. In any case, mama did say there would be days like this.
Miranda Hammel is a journalism major. She enjoys reading, writing, listening to music, and being active outdoors.