To the girl who's so over the party scene,

Every Friday and even, on occasion, Thursday night you get the group text asking about going to the bar or Pike is having a huge party this weekend. You see the responses of "Hell Yeah" and "Getting Lit this weekend" and all you can think is that you have four more episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" that you were looking forward to finishing on Friday night while eating that tub of Halo Top ice cream. Your friends get disappointed and try to convince you to come out anyway, and you just keep telling them how tired you are, you have work on Saturday morning or that you'll come out next time -- when you already know that you won't. Guess what, it's OK to be done with the party scene.

You had the wild nights, the heavy drinking nights, the nights you don't remember and the nights you wish you could forget. You've been there and done that. You don't have a need to do it anymore. Simply the thought of a huge party or large amounts of alcohol makes you sick to your stomach. You try to talk yourself up two or three days in advance, but when the time comes to get ready, you are exhausted and have no interest in leaving your house or even putting pants on for that matter.

It's OK to reach this point in your life, to not wish to be apart of the massive crowds or the drunken shenanigans. It's OK to stay in on a Friday night and catch up on your Netflix binge or finish that homework you've been putting off all week. Just because you don't like to go out every night or get drunk every weekend doesn't mean that you don't still like to occasionally have another wild night in your memory with your girls. Then the next morning comes and that hungover "I hate my life" feeling hits you, and you remember why you don't go out anymore. Then the cycle starts again, and you spend the next month avoiding the bars, parties and large crowds until you've built up enough strength to do it again.

As much as we try to avoid growing up and the idea of being an adult scares the living hell out of us, we can't fight the inevitable. The fact is eventually we won't want to take 12 shots, drink a 24 pack of Bud Light and dance the night away. When the exhaustion and stress from everything else in our life make alcohol sound appealing, and then we remember the consequences of drinking the amount we plan on, we decide on chicken nuggets and ice cream instead.

Staying in, watching movies, eating pizza, having a glass of wine is enough for me. I had my fun, I drank too much, went out every weekend and danced until my feet hurt for the next week. Then I started getting tired at 11:00 p.m. and getting annoyed with the packed parties and taking care of all my drunk friends just turned me off of alcohol. So, I avoid the bars, the parties and the large amounts of alcohol. I still go out on occasion. I have a drink or two just enough that no one can call me a party pooper for sipping my water. The party scene isn't for everyone; after a certain point, you get tired of trying so hard to look good and have a "great time" that you would rather accept the inevitable and stay at home like you wanted to in the first place.