Bar-hopping. Raves. All-night parties.
When the general population thinks of college students having fun on the weekends, the above images often spring to mind: “Ah, the beauty of youth,” some call the collegiate period of life. After all, certain universities such as Tulane University and Miami University have even been named “party schools” and rank first and third, respectively, on Niche’s list of “Top Party Schools in America”.
While it certainly depends on where one attends college, party culture has become a major experience associated with young adults’ lives.
What opportunities for fun, then, exist for more studious young adults enrolled in university?
This may appear to be an odd question to outgoing college students; studious people don’t have fun!
Well, that stereotype is about to be crushed once and for all.
Not only do studious people have fun, but the activities that they find enjoyable are often stranger than partying. Let’s take a look at a few examples:
1. Stay up all night reading.
Yes, this is considered an extremely enjoyable activity to many studious university attendees. Most of the time, the book is purely pleasure reading: Though some students do take a large amount of pleasure in reading textbooks for fun. Students who “suffer” from this form of partying have been known to run on fumes the next day due to accidently staying up until 4:00am finishing a novel.
2. Have internal, mental debates during the wee hours of the morning.
Nothing says “philosophical debate” time like a quiet dorm room, an overactive mind, and the dread of knowing that your alarm clock is going to beep in a matter of hours. Questions such as: “Why are both cows and zebras white and black?”, “Are cows and zebras mostly white or black, or some weird combination?”, and “Why am I so focused on cows and zebras; is my mind trying to clue me in on some big mystery surrounding cows and zebras?” plague the mind.
3. Color.
This activity is certainly not limited to studious young adults, though people who do not attend parties generally have more time to commit to perfectly coloring inside the tiny lines of adult coloring books. Seriously, who came up with the designs? Each page takes days to complete!
4. Memorize the dictionary.
Learning new words is actually more fun than it sounds. Plus, it improves writing skills by adding new words to your vocabulary. Also, it’s wondrous fun using a word that professors have to look up when grading essays!
Admittedly, I used to sit and memorize the dictionary when I was younger and bored. Occasionally, in the rare moments I have spare time nowadays, I still look up new synonyms for familiar words. Being nerdy is awesome!
The point with this list is to show that there are different definitions of “fun”. Just because students do not go out to parties does not make them dull. In fact, if you are more of a party person, try one of these activities; if you are a studious person, going out into reality every once in awhile will not kill you.
College is a time to broaden one’s horizons, not to sit back and allow life to take shape without your participation.