You’re right in saying that college is the best time of your life. You’re right in saying that you probably won’t have a midlife crisis because you didn’t partake in “stereotypical” party-girl behavior. You’re even right in saying that it doesn’t make you uptight or a prude for choosing a night in over a night out. But where you’re wrong is thinking that I won’t look back on these years – the years that in fact have been the best years of my life – and not smile. Even now, as a 21-year-old college student starting my senior year at a university I love, I know that I will look back on my time in college and I will wear a smile for the memories I have made, the friendships I have built, the experiences I have had and even the nights I didn’t spend studying.

Where you’re also wrong is thinking that because I like to spend time with my friends dancing the night away, that I can’t hold a meaningful conversation or think deeper than a kiddie pool. You’re wrong in thinking that I can only have fun if my mind is altered by substance. You’re wrong in thinking that all your time will consist of is getting black out drunk and getting way too familiar with strangers if you choose the “party stage.”

I can respect that in college, where you’re paying thousands of dollars for your education (I’m doing the same, by the way), you would rather focus solely on your future than what is happening right now. I can understand, and I respect that. All I ask is that you respect my choices to make the most out of right now, the only thing that is certain in life, and that I have chosen to spend my time as a young adult making memories with my friends, going on road trips, seeing my favorite bands, and you guessed it, even enjoying a party here and there.

The best part about the “party stage,” if that’s what we have elected to call it, is that after a night out on the town with my friends, I get to go home and watch hours of Netflix, eat too much pizza and even have those meaningful discussions you like. Honestly, it’s the best of both worlds.

I’m not offended by your generalized assumptions about the type of person I may be, or my lack of intellectual substance. I’m offended that you’ve taken my decisions and belittled me as a person by making false accusations about the way I spend my time. I have no doubt that there are likely people who do the things you have mentioned, but not every person who sometimes chooses the party over the text books is the kind of person you have been so transparently disgusted by.

You don’t have to choose one or the other. If you want to go to the party, go. If you don’t want to go to the party, don’t go. I’ll respect your decision to skip the party, please respect mine to make my life the actual party.