The thought of going out on Friday night helps me get through the busiest of weeks. Between juggling my classes, my personal life, and sleeping, it is so much fun to let loose on the weekend. Some weeks can leave me more exhausted than others, and all I want to do is stay in. Often times, I can find a few friends who are feeling the same way, and we decide to navigate the low-key Friday night together. We all have a general plan about how the night will go, but it never ends up as we expect it to. These are the stages of staying in on a Friday night.

1. We decide to get dinner.

The first thing we usually do when we plan to spend the night in is eat dinner. Sometimes we eat on campus, other times we get food delivered to the dorm room. Either way, the night always starts off by eating. Usually, it's because we are tired (hence why we are staying in in the first place) and we won't want to go out later. Plus, who doesn't love to pig out on a Friday?

2. We watch Netflix.

I don't have a tv in my room, and none of my friends do either. We have to work with what we've got when it comes to watching Netflix in the room. Our set up looks something like this: we put a desk chair in the middle of the room, turn on our fairy lights and turn off the overhead light, and then sit on the floor around the computer. It's like a homemade movie theatre!

3. Friends text us and ask what we are doing.

This is when things usually start to veer from our original plan for the night. When we tell them we are just chilling, they'll either reply with something along the lines of "Cool, have fun!" or they will ask to come over and hang with us. The more the merrier, but not if you are trying to lay low for the night.

4. More friends come to hang and we end up going out.

When our other friends show up to our Netflix binge session, it isn't long before we end up getting ready to go to a party, out to get more food, or to see more friends. We end up leaving and see where the night takes us.

5. We come back a few hours later.

Before we know it, it's 2 in the morning when we *did not* plan on being up that late. This just proves that there's really no such thing as a Friday night in at college. No matter how hard you try, something fun ends up happening! Don't fight it, just go with the flow. So much better than a Friday night in, anyway.