With age comes wisdom, none can deny. But, as we get older, there will always be a younger crowd to engage in the activities of their predecessors to “keep the flame burning.” So, what are we left to do in fourth year?
Living in a university town complicates aging, as a never-ending wave of youngsters arrive every September to pursue their university education, and more importantly, party. When the eyes of these “fresh crowds” often point to the doors of Stages or Ale for their weekend nights, upper years are left to wonder how they should be spending their time.
Is it time for almost graduates and PhD students to move on, hit The Toucan, and forget Stages entirely?
Although the only limitations in terms of clubbing are being underage, the social differences between 19-year-old first years and 21-year-old (and up) fourth years is greater than one might expect.
Newer “of age” students might feel as though they are finally entitled to the party life of a university student, unhappy they must share the scene with someone they consider to be “unc.” While older students with established friend groups and connections to locations might feel as though the younger crowd is “taking over” their territory.
In the thick of orientation week, many upper years may find themselves reflecting on their past as first years, a time when graduation feels like a lifetime away. It’s important to recognize the different experiences of these age groups in the context of university life.
First years have a certain air about them, like a ball of clay yet to be molded. They live in a time where friendships might last a week, where they experience the pier for the first time, where they get midnight food at Loco. This extends to their nights out as well. Most will remember their first time going to the clubs on Princess St., dancing with their friends, and feeling ecstatic at the prospect that this could happen every weekend for the next four years.
While upper years are veterans of the space. On these nights out, they are faced with the fact that a new crowd has arrived to take up their leisure space. It’s a strange feeling.
It’s also a very “small town university problem.” Upper years who might be going to school in larger cities, like Toronto or Montreal, have a downtown area far bigger than our own in Kingston. The issues of running into lower years and feeling embarrassment for their age is less of a reality in a city where there’s an abundance of nightlife options for people of all ages.
Although it’s fair to feel this embarrassment about returning to a club that may be infested with younger years, and so few clubs that mingling is bound to happen, this shouldn’t be something to end a 21-year-old’s clubbing career. Just because graduation looms on the horizon does not mean the university experience needs to be cut short, and it surely does not mean that partying should be cut out, especially for the last year of an era defined by festivity.
As long as nobody is being overtly creepy or uncomfortable to the lower years attending the club, using their experience to prey on their inexperience, the question “how old is too old to club?” is inconsequential.
It is a fact that people who attend clubs in university towns will be running in the same crowds as their predecessors and successors. The “older” folk should not be shamed into retreating to bar life so the younger years can club.
Instead, recognize each other’s differences and dance your hearts out.
Tags
Ale House, clubbing, drinking, drinking culture, Nightlife, Stages, The Toucan
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