Spring break is over, and finals have not yet arrived… It’s officially away-weekend season. Austin, Lake Travis and NOLA, oh my! While being asked to an away-weekend is definitely exciting, it also creates an unnecessary amount of stress. Here are the four stages everyone goes through when asked to an away-weekend.
STAGE 1: Excitement
YESSSSSS! At first, you’re excited. All those subtle hints you’ve been dropping finally paid off. If things go as planned, you’ll even have a date for your next formal. This is so exciting. This is going to be so fun. Now all you have to do is make sure all your best friends are going too, and it’ll basically be a girls’ weekend… just with lots of guys… and a lot of people you don’t know… and lots of people that you do know but wish you didn’t… wait…
STAGE 2: Stress
The realization that you just committed yourself to an exhausting weekend with a ton of people sets in. You begin thinking of all the things added to your to-do list because of this commitment: find all of your best friends their dates, figure out a wardrobe, diet so you can fit into that wardrobe, make a cooler and the list goes on. Then you begin questioning everything, like how important it is to make a cooler. Who has time for that? Not you. But if you do make one, it has to be good. Are you a bad date if you don’t make one? Probably. Do you care? Ehhhh… This fun weekend just turned into a complete and total stressor.
STAGE 3: Second-GuessingYou re-evaluate your whole life. Is it worth it? Can you even go– maybe you should stay home and study… right. Do you want to go to Soul three times this week and eat zero carbs? Maybe you should just back out while you still can.
STAGE 4: Reassurance.
You calm down from your mental breakdown. Of course you’re going! You text your best friends to let them know they should start planning to go on the away-weekend if they weren’t already. Your excitement level is back at stage one.
(Your emotions repeat this cycle at least three more times before you leave.)