The Rules of Partying

Will Piker

If a student ever wanted to squander all they invested in college, I recommend avoiding the college party scene.  The largest part of the college experience is the partying, and few schools are better outfitted to supply its student body with one amazing partying experience after another like Michigan State. 

Taking into consideration what a large part the party scene is of life at MSU, Spartanedge.com is now starting a new series that critiques and examines various frat and house parties.

With these articles and stories arriving in the near future, I’m taking the liberty of giving a basic outline of just how to approach partying and ensure that people make the most of their college years.

Theme:
The theme is one of the most important things in determining which party an individual should indulge.  The key reason you should be going to a party is to make yourself a better socialite and to meet new people; the theme of whatever party you go to determines just how to go about that and if the theme just seems like a weak one to meet new people, you may just want to avoid it. 

For instance, sure a sunglasses party or a black-and-white party sound fairly clever at first, but when the time is taken to stop and consider how good of an opening your Ray-Bans are for conversation, you may find yourself at a loss for words.  Two good themed parties I’d recommend keeping an open ear for would be black-light parties and stoplight parties.

The Where:
Like all choices in life, there are pros and cons on both sides.  While partying with your close friends allows for good times to reminisce about later, you’re really only getting the same old experience and aren’t doing anything new.  Frat parties usually provide an atmosphere you aren’t going to find anywhere else, but if you’re looking to get wasted, they’re likely to be BYOB. 

There’s always the risk in being somewhere that’s not your element.  House parties are even more of a risk than frat’s as far as not being in control of the situation going on around you, and there’s a bit more of a trick in figuring out which parties are going to know whether or not you belong, or more importantly, whether they’re cool with partying with strangers.

The Who:
Anybody who’s seen “Wedding Crashers” knows that the first rule of wedding crashing is never leave a fellow crasher behind.  I can’t stress this enough.  You come together, you leave together.  I especially emphasize looking after a friend who’s drunk and requires the extra help.  Some parties you just can’t get into without extra people.  If you’re a man that is, which brings up another point for the guys, if you have a large group of female friends, I recommend you travel with them if you want to get into a party. 

This allows me to address the two main points of “The Who” of going partying.  One being you look after all of your friends; you never know when they might make the wrong decision, and you may be the only one responsible enough at the time stop them.  And two, the people you travel with determine whether you get in where you’re going, so carefully choose the crowd you run with.

The How:
The execution of how you get in is really a combination of things, mostly a mix of everything I listed before.  If the crowd you run with is too drunk, you’re probably not getting in.  If you don’t have the outfit right on the money, you’re definitely not getting inside.  And if you don’t know whom you’re dealing with, you could find yourself in a world of trouble. 

Do not mouth off to anybody who won’t let you in; that’s the first step towards a bad night.  And don’t condescend and try to outsmart the door guard, they’re going to catch on right away and put you back out on the curb.  Just act polite, sympathize that they’re putting a lot of work into making sure others enjoy their night and you’ll probably enjoy your own night.

That’s a very general basic that only touches on a slim amount of what partying is all about.  Throughout the year more will probably be filled in as I attend different parties and review them so be sure to keep a watchful eye starting soon for updates on thelatest parties around campus.