Belushi Approves

The ultimate collegiate experience: The Toga Party.

This extravagantly simple college tradition was immortalized by Animal House in 1978. Animal House is the iconic frat film, the college movie to birth all college movies. Growing up, I watched such screen gems as American Pie 2, Old School, Sorority Boys, Legally Blonde, Van Wilder, and other goofball flicks that amped up the sexual tension and promoted binge drinking more than academics. This is the image of college that I conjured up when envisioning my four years away from home.

Unfortunately, my frat party dreams were crushed when it became clear that my family could not afford to send me to college, and my grades weren’t good enough to warrant any real help from scholarships (even though my SAT scores certainly were). I tried my hand at a local private university, but after a year it was obvious that it was the wrong choice for me.

Since I now attend community college and live at home, I have long-since come to terms with the fact that I will never attend a toga party; unless someone through an ironic gathering over the summer where most the people would participate in the ‘toga’ half of the equation. Or, maybe even as an adult, for as-yet unforeseen reasons. Quite a few of my friends are ‘characters’ in their own right, I wouldn’t be shocked if one of them insisted on a toga party for their 50th.

However, this all changed when I made the somewhat odd decision to spend my spring break on another college campus. Specifically, Mary Washington in Virginia. My best friend goes to school there, and claims that it is considerably warmer in Virginia than Connecticut.

Right off the bat, I told my her that I was only bringing “party clothes” with me, because I’m fresh out of a year-long relationship, recently lost 14lbs, and don’t get to let loose very often at home. She assured me there were going to be plenty of opportunities, including a bar that is often full of young men in Marine training.

While sipping my daily hazelnut/soy/splenda coffee, I received a text from that same very same BFF which read

Just got invited by a friend of mine to a toga party friday night, so I guess you’re going to get the true college experience visiting me!

So it looks like I will actually get to fulfill my American Youth dream of attending a college toga party. Here’s hoping no farm animals are wounded in the process.