Puzzle pieces

Remembering a blackout

A friendship groomed through years of interaction can crumble just as quickly as it was fostered over a semester. Drunk words are often sober thoughts and a slew of slurred sentences can leave a relationship dead in the water. 

Few things are more cringe-worthy than waking up to pages of forgotten texts, aside from hammered tweets. Those 3 a.m. calls were thankfully missed but you may never know the content of those autopilot Snapchats you sent. Getting your life back in order after a hard blackout can be challenging, especially when you’re off the sauce the next morning. 

The hangover might not have hit yet but let’s be real—it’s 11 a.m. and you’re sloshed. Water, breakfast, a quick workout and shower can set you up for success, leaving you better equipped to beat the impending doom of the afternoon comedown. 

Soon subsiding will be the pounding headache and acid reflux but the regret only grows as the list of drunken mistakes unfold. Piecing the night together in a puzzle of bad decisions is hard but if you hope to salvage any bit of decency, some light detective work is needed. 

You might remember pregaming with the squad and meeting friends from class at the party but after that and the five o’clock shots they gave you, it gets hazy. Snippets of your adventures throughout Big Rapids may become more vivid after recapping with your friends. 

A firsthand tale of you expelling the demons off the front porch, Snaps depicting your stumbling mess and the Taco Bell wrappers surrounding you and the couch you passed out on create a timeline of recklessness. 

If you’re looking to limit your buffoonery and still want to have a night out with friends, there are some methods of risk reduction you can take. 

Bottle popping gets you to the intended destination quick but I always seem to take a detour somewhere along the way and wind up piss-wasted, rambling utter nonsense. Beer keeps you at a steadier pace as the night unfolds. 

When I do drink liquor, I chase my vodka with water—it’s the move. The training for intervention procedures course (TIPS) I took with my registered student organization stated that mixing pop and liquor slows down the absorption of alcohol, making you more drunk. 

No matter how polluted you are, there’s never an excuse for being a trash person. Friendships are shredded in seconds from drunken mistakes but they can be mended through the right reparations. Take care of yourself and if you make mistakes, don’t leave them in the dark. 

The universe has a funny way of working out and the people that are meant to be in your world will stick around if you make it right because real ones always hold it down.

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