Two Nights in the Life of a Spring Weekender

by Sarah Duval on 30/04/09 at 3:56 pm

Two Nights in the Life of a Spring Weekender

It all started with the email that Ken Bedini sent out, warning us from attending UCONN’s Spring Weekend.  At first, I will admit, it did set me off from going.

However, the more I thought about it, the more it made me want to go.  Doesn’t it always work out that way, someone telling you not to do something makes you want to do it more?  It has been a long and difficult semester and to be honest, partying in a large group of drunk students sounded like a perfect way to let off steam. 

I planned to go Friday and Saturday, totally disregarding the threat, “The University of Connecticut officials will be sharing with me the names of any Eastern students arrested over the weekend.”  Seriously administration, what are you going to do if I get in trouble at UCONN, punish me at Eastern for drinking on a wet campus as opposed to your dry campus, which is and please mistake me if I’m wrong, following your rules.

So off I went Friday afternoon, as early as possible to not get stopped at any police checkpoints. They always make me nervous for some reason.

After the long walk from Towers to Celeron, and seeing some arrests being made, I came upon a huge crowd of people hovering around an apartment complex.

All I could think of was what if someone lived in one of these apartments and didn’t like to party? This would be  terrilbe for them.  There were people stumbling everywhere, broken bottles, people peeing freely, and it seemed like everyone was on their phone, either texting or calling.  There was music coming from the apartments so it was nice to let loose and dance, even if my intoxicated dancing abilities are less than stellar.

What surprised me, and ever year it seems to, was the fact that the police take pictures with the drunken students.  Aren’t they supposed to be enforcing the laws, not smiling with a student who has a beer can in their hand?  Do not take what I’m saying the wrong way, I am glad they were relaxed, but after the email they set out I just expected more.

After stumbling around for a good few hours, calling or texting countless people, dancing and seeing people, both people I wanted to see and people I tried to avoid, I was ready to go.  As I was walking out I was astounded at the people still pouring into Celeron, surely there wouldn’t be any room left soon, but somehow they packed it in.

There were drunken students splattered all along campus on my walk back, and there was even a fight in the middle of the road. If you’re going to get into a fight at least try and fight in a grassy area, not in the middle of the road where a driver, who had most likely had alcohol, would be driving.  Still, it was amusing to watch.

Saturday, after I spent my day baking in the sun at a barbeque and getting my fill of Vitamin K for the week, I was ready to head out again, even though I was still exhausted.  I went up later in the night, and even though I was convinced I would hit a spot check, there was nothing.  The only police officers I saw were driving in the opposite direction.

Thankfully, the walk was much shorter because my feet and legs were still stiff from the night before and the weather was gorgeous, to say the least.  I figured with the warm weather and the fact that I had so much fun at X-lot the year before it would be a great night.  Wrong.  It was boring, the house at the bottom of the lot that had music playing last year was boarded up, and I may sound old saying this but someone breaking a glass bottle and spraying everyone within a ten feet radius with beer just isn’t as fun as it once was.  Not to mention I had to side step shards of glass all night because I stupidly wore sandals.

The police were there again in full force, but still taking picture with students.  The only enforcement I saw was the strict banning of glass containers.  If the police saw you with a glass container they took it from you and poured it out.  I am not complaining about this rule, stepping on glass is not fun.  So after walking around for about an hour, I left, sorely disappointed.

Eastern Students simply need to be cautious when attending events such as Spring Weekend.  When you’re not smart and taking the proper precautions that’s when problems occur and other students, who follow the rules, get emails from the administration warning them not to go out and have fun.  I’m glad I disregarded that email. I had a great time and let off some much needed steam.

Related content (automatically generated):

One Response to “Two Nights in the Life of a Spring Weekender”

  1. Wyatt K

    May 1st, 2009

    Interesting story, but is it was necessary to write it in a first person style. Using the word “I” in a story or an editorial is not really the best approach. I understand the writer was there, but it would be more compelling if it was not in the first person . Nevertheless, this is a well written story and the writer will surely produce some terrific articles hopefully in the future. It would be better to have more original photography in the issue. Black and white photos should not be overlooked in terms of the impact and the art that can be achieved in that medium for a story like this.

Leave a Reply