Most of my Friday and Saturday nights and probably some of yours, are spent on my futon either playing NCAA football or watching Netflix. I get a lot of criticism from my friends that I am a loser and a loner for not wanting to go out to the bars or some house party where no one really knows the person hosting. They say that I need to be more social and if I don’t go out it will hurt my chances of finding a girlfriend or making new friends. 

I then think, do I really want to find my girlfriend and possible future wife when she won’t be able to complete a sentence without slurring half her words? I don’t want to go up to my parents and introduce my new girlfriend and tell them that we met when I walked in on her puking her guts out in the bathroom of some apartment. 

I would probably make new friends if I would go out and have some “fun” every once in a while, but I don’t actually want to make new friends. 

Think about it, we will all be scattered around the country in four years or less. Making new friends just means you feel obligated to make an effort to stay in touch when in fact you don’t actually care how they are doing (unless they are doing worse than you, then you want to rub your success in their face). Plus, I am really bad at remembering names so meeting new people would put the burden on me of trying to remember their names for the next few months. 

People would also say that you can make good business connections through socializing. Now, I am a math education major with aspirations to become an administrator of a high school. I don’t think I would like to meet my future employers or co-workers while I am . . . how should I say it . . . not sober. I don’t want people to remember how awful I am at beer pong or how fast I can chug a beer. I want them to know me for being a great educator and wonderful role model for my students.   

I live in a house with 34 other people and every single one can tell you my favorite thing to do is watch Netflix. 

I absolutely love binge watching Netflix. I don’t watch very many movies, mostly just TV series. I just finished House of Cards and it took me around 36 hours to complete. I get completely connected to the characters. I may absolutely hate the story of the show, but if I connect with one character, then I have to watch every single episode. 

I like TV characters because they don’t require anything from me, except 30-50 minutes of watching them one episode at a time. I don’t have to remember their names, because they remind me every episode and I don’t have to worry about keeping in contact with them because I can always hop on Netflix and they will be there. 

After writing that paragraph I could come off a little crazy — trust me, I’m not. I just don’t grasp the point of spending my time going out and having “fun” when I could sit on my futon, watch Netflix, and work on an assignment that was due a couple weeks ago. I would rather be working on my success than working on my “social life” when that same social life will become irrelevant in the next five years. 

So, I am reaching out to all students, no matter what college or where you are in your life. Don’t pressure people to go out to have so-called “fun;” they might be having a blast by themselves with a little bit of Netflix and a lot of Pepsi. 

I am not telling you to stop going out, because obviously you see some positive outcome for your actions. I am just asking you to let those who like a little peace and quiet do what they want to do and be who they want to be because in the end, we should all have the freedom to be ourselves.