The America Life podcast has an episode about life in the number 1 party college: Penn State. As someone who has lived here most of my life this isn’t surprising to me at all. I’ve almost gotten hit by college students driving around. I distinctly remember walking home from park at 1pm on a Saturday when a white sports blasting music comes rushing around the corner going over very fast as I froze in the road unsure what to do. In the car were two college aged boys yelling and having the time of their lives as they breeze past me. They were moving so fast the wake of the car made me tumble forward. All I could think was did they really think almost hitting a 15 year old is okay? What were they thinking?

In State College many college students subscribe to the party life style. Once I moved into the dorms I noticed it all around. It’s almost like it’s own religion and Ideology. Monday and Tuesday is recoup from the weekend, Wednesday you get your party schedule sorted out, Thursday is a light partying, Friday afternoon you rush to get your homework done before doing makeup, dressing up, taking a shot, and heading out. Oh and don’t mind your roommate studying in the corner you have to have a small pre party before going to the frats. That just might be my experience with my roommates though.

Some common phrase/ commonplaces I hear is “I’m not as drunk as you think”, “It’s not that much”, and “It’s not that late yet”. In drinking and partying environments it is a very common thing to hear. From texting your friends late at night or your roommate stumbling in a 3am. However, a good rule of thumb is if someone has to day “I’m not as drunk as you think I am” they are very, very drunk.

That Podcast talks about all of theses. They talk about the constant party environment that State College festers. One thing that they mention was people not talking about all the people who died due to being drunk. One thing that has kept me from partying is Timothy Piazza. In 2019 he fell down a flight for stairs at frat party. He died once no one call for help out of fear of getting in trouble for underaged drinking. After that I realized that people would have me die so they wouldn’t get in trouble. Between that and talking with people who have been raped at parties I would say that the way the podcast portrayed partying is light and fun and doesn’t truly portray the horrors of what happens and Penn State Parties.