Choose Your Own Adventure: Saturday Night

It’s 8 p.m. on a Saturday when you and your friends face the question: what are we going to do tonight? Nights in college, especially during the weekend, can go a wide variety of ways—binging on junk food, hosting a movie night, glamming up to hit up the local bar, or bracing a frat party—the campus is your oyster. It’s up to you to choose your own adventure for the night.

To stay in or go out?

Option 1: Tonight can be a wine-and-dine kind of night. Order Chinese take-out from the menu slid under your dorm room door last week and invite your girl friends over to discuss the latest gossip from the fourth floor. Cut up cheap ‘Cuse shirts for the upcoming tailgate while you sip Barefoot out of solo cups. Everyone deserves a night to just relax without worrying about where you’ll end up tomorrow morning. Nothing like some quality time with your girls!

Option 2: Tonight could also be the night you and your girls take on the nightlife of Syracuse. Perhaps it’s even time to break out that black bodysuit from Urban Outfitters you've been saving for a special occasion. Pull on those skinny jeans that make your butt look like Nicki Minaj’s album cover and make your way out: a rager-of-an-evening awaits.

How do you pregame?

Option 1: If you decide to pregame for a GNO – and drink fireball straight from the bottle – you can get hyped for your night out and dance off all that alcohol by blasting Lil John's ‘Get Low’. Social media is key, of course, because what better way to make everyone catch a bad case of FOMO than posting Snapchats of you and your girls having a blast? You’re not just going to the party, you are the party.

Option 2: We’ve all had those weeks when the only thing we want is to take a load off by downing a tequila shot (or seven). If you decide to pound shots like your life depends on it, though, your pregame might turn into an actual game. How you’ll make it out – let alone out of the building – without at least one of you falling down the stairs is unimaginable, but if there’s a will, there’s a way.

Where to go?

Option 1: If you decide you want to keep it lowkey, aka you want to minimize run-ins with sticky floors, unkempt bathrooms (because no one likes the “squat and pee” method), and sweaty half-dressed humans, head off campus a block or two and you’ll find yourself at a house party or local bar.

Option 2: If frats are more your vibe for the night, head to one of the Greek Rows –– girls get in for free, after all. Enjoy an open bar of Keystone Light and dance the night away shoulder to sweaty shoulder in the sea of frat frequenters.

Who are you going home with?

Congrats if you've made it this far, but it's time to decide: is it a Saturday for the girls or a search to find your prince – or frat star– charming?

Option 1: A girls’ night out is always a blast; there’s no worrying about making out with a guy only for your drunk goggles to vanish in the morning and realize he’s not as cute as he was seven hours ago. It’s the time for just you and your girls. Sure, you might grind on some guys, but at the end of the night, it’s your girls who will be helping you home.

Option 2: Mr. Right (for tonight) could be hidden behind the drunken, grimy façade of a frat boy. But let’s face it, those hidden gems don't appear for everyone. If you’re more into that mysterious hunk from your psych class, or the cutie down the hall who you’ve been exchanging glances with since move-in day, text them. Snapchat them. Call them. Your sober self will thank you later.

What do you get as a late-night snack?

Option 1: If the night ends young but you find yourself needing to sober up while already back in the comfort of your dorm –– assuming you made it back in one piece –– order in. Now. Dominos is a safe bet, but Insomnia Cookies delivers until 3 a.m. and Calio’s has you covered until four. Pick your poison, just don't fall asleep before your delivery driver calls.

Option 2: If you’re still out at 2 a.m., kudos to you, girl. You made it. The frats are beginning to wind down for the night, the bars are closing, and you finally have some alone time with the true love of your life: food. Pita Pit, Acropolis, and Jimmy Johns are all at your drunken fingertips –– you just have to find the right door to stumble into.

And if you were too drunk to remember making some of these choices, at least you'll have something to laugh about at the egg line in Ernie.