Pre-drinks peaked in first year, and it will never be the same again

That feeling of freedom, of no-one telling you off if you didn’t turn up to your 9am, of not having to tell your mum where you’ve been and who you’ve been with.

To a lucky few, you’re barely halfway through. To most, first year is a distant memory, a blur of nights out at trashy clubs, lying in bed until 4pm with your fourth new friend of the week, and, unsurprisingly, very few lectures.

As we all know the key to a great night out is to start it off with great pre-drinks. Never Have I Ever, Ring of Fire, Odds On and Paranoia are just a few of the thousands of games that are played  to get the vodka flowing. One thing that always makes me nostalgic to be back in my halls is pre-drinks.

Pre-drinks, to me, were the very essence of first year. Where fresher reps forced us to sit round a table and play ice-breakers. Where you learned all about Dave’s foot fetish and that one time your hermit housemate actually left the flat. They were where friendships began and memories were made.

None of these people were actually my flatmates

You’re friends with everyone

“You’re all here to make friends for life” they said. No. You’re there to make friends to get drunk with. Friends who refuse to let you go home when you can barely stand, friends who say ‘Yes!!!!’ when you ask if Jaeger and Sambuca mix well together. You’re mates with Max from upstairs, and Lucy in A block. You met Alex on the bus and Chloe was the first one you spoke to. Nobody wants to commit to a group, so everyone is your best friend. Take advantage – it makes pre’s the best.

Your beloved flat Cleaner

There’s no better feeling than walking into your kitchen the morning after the night before and realising someone has already cleaned up the mess. And by mess, I mean chaos. By chaos, I mean the cheesy chips someone threw at the wall, the mixture of Lambrini and lemonade someone poured over the floor, the smashed glass you’d shoved under the counter – the lot. Without cleaners, halls pre-drinks would not be where they are today. Thank you cleaners, Thank you.

You could eat off the floor by 10 AM the next day

It’s already a shit hole

In second and third year, your house is likely to be a whole lot nicer than the dive you lived in as a fresher. It might have a painted front door, nice wooden floors, a dishwasher, maybe even a big flat-screen TV. During the day these items are so nice, something to enjoy and be happy about. Come the time when you’re hosting the pre’s for your BFF’s 21st, and you’ll be pulling your hair out screaming something about the deposit.

First year halls are shit. They are designed entirely to accommodate students who are, inevitably, going to break things. At the beginning of second term, my flatmate decided to dive onto the dining table – snapping it in half. They never even bothered to replace it.

Free booze

If you’re smart, like we were, your flat will always host the halls’ pre-drinks. You’ll tell one or two people from each flat, and by 9pm people will be arriving from all corners of the building. By midnight the flat will be deserted – taxis have long left, even the “we’ll find you in there!” stragglers have departed. What remains is a glorious mix of left-overs as – in typical fresher fashion – nobody finishes their drinks.

An inch of vodka here, a can or two hidden behind the curtains and BINGO. As a result you’ll find that the more pre-drinks you host, the more free alcohol you accumulate, and the cheaper night out you can have.

We had a stripper one birthday

No 9am lectures

Okay, so you might be expected to be there, but you’re not. Who even ‘9ams’ these days? Even the “I’d rather get a takeaway than go clubbing” people never make the bus on time, and the people who live a three minute walk from uni never make it. Freshers don’t 9am. Fact. So why wouldn’t you put your entire heart and soul into a night out? Why wouldn’t you try and make every night wilder and more memorable than the last?