Going out

As it was my birthday this week and I am starting to feel the wintery creep of age in my life, I rebelled against it by trying to prove I was still young.


On the night of my party, I attempted to push past my now-12pm bedtime and partied on until 5am. Not sensibly, of course, but will determination and a lot of encouragement. I got home and thought, “Work is in 3 hours, so I may as well stay up until then”. Obviously, it was a SH%T idea and I obviously feel asleep moments after trying to watch a thunderstorm. But then, reality wakes you up. Work felt like a graveyard. I was so tired and lacked concentration that I was out of normal functioning for 2 days.

I never want to do that again.

But true-as-bob, every time I start feeling old and like I have the need to party until dawn, I realise a very sad fact: I am an 18-til-I-die year old stuck in a Let’s-go-to-bed-early-and-exercise 23 year old’s body. My mind can party like a rock star, but unfortunately my body does not keep up. The song “Party like a rock, party like a rock star” can be aptly re-named “Party like a first, party like a first-year” as that is pretty much the last time you can party and still function the next day.

And the sneaky part of an adult hangover is that you wake up feeling fine (because you are probably still drunk). And you go to work and you just feel tired. And then gradually you feel like your eyes are burning and then it all goes steadily downhill. My only consolation is that I only work until lunchtime, at which point I can go home and feel sorry for myself.

Today, however, I am a perky little soldier since I learned my lesson. As long as I get my 8 hours of sleep and am in bed before 12pm, it turns out I can still party like an aging rock star!