Woo! I love drunk chicks, dude!”

Welcome to my Tuesday 2 a.m. wake-up call.

I don’t know what classes my neighbors are taking but they must be easy. I do know that they are KU students and that they are, in fact, enrolled in classes. I have trudged up the hill on the way to campus behind them many a time. They carry backpacks; they talk about their classes. Yet they somehow manage to have a party nearly every night, and a fairly large one at that. During the week, I usually come home around nine after work to find that at least one of my three neighbors has a party under way. This may entail any of the following: groups of people drinking on the porch, people stumbling into my yard, screaming and yelling into a bullhorn, guys running past in various stages of undress, or raucous games of beer pong.

Now I like parties, and I like having a few cosmopolitans with my friends. And if I had the time to party every weekend, I would. I don’t mind waking up on Saturday morning to find the front yard full of such treasures as solitary shoes, empty beer cans, smashed plastic cups, various articles of clothing and passed-out neighbors sleeping off their hangovers in my front yard. All that is amusing to me—when it’s on the weekend. I just can’t understand these people that get stumbling drunk every night of the week. How can they possibly make it to class after a night like that? And even if they can, what kind of condition will they be in to participate and learn? I’m also unsure how they can afford the copious amounts of alcohol they always seem to have, since I have no idea how they would have time to go to a job.

I hear people in classes saying that they are “soo hungover, man” and they got “so effin’ trashed last night.” The tone they use is almost bragging, especially when they say things like, “Oh you’re hungover? Well there’s no way you could have been as drunk as me last night.” I just don’t understand when an unhealthy excess of drinking became a bragging point. It’s not something to be proud of; it’s called alcoholism. If students cannot confine their drinking to just a couple nights a week, then they have a problem.

I know we’re young and this is the time we’re supposed to be having fun. However, we all need to remember why we’re here. Yes, part of it is to have fun and meet new people and if that for some people means partying a lot, then ok, do that. It is only one part, though. It shouldn’t overshadow the real reason we’re attending college: to get a good education. And that means going to class—well, most of the time—and putting in an effort. There’s no reason that we can’t have our cake and eat it too; there is a way to be a good student and also “get your drink on,” as my neighbors say. Students need to be able to balance fun time and study time. When drinking is affecting class attendance or grades, it’s gotten out of hand.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s great fun to hang out and drink with your friends, and I also firmly believe that’s an important part of the college experience. The main thing is to know the limit and keep drinking under control. Don’t let it overshadow schoolwork, and make sure to practice calculus as much as the keg stand, because—unfortunately for my neighbors—there is no way to major in beer pong.

Gentry is a Kansas City junior in English and pre-medicine.