Dear Upperclassmen,

When was the last time you had a sleepover? Was it last week? Last month? Heck, last year? Has 11 p.m. become the unwritten curfew of your friend group? Have people become too tired to stay up late? Do you miss those late nights filled with tears of laughter? Me too.

If your experience has been similar to mine, drivers licenses effectively killed sleepovers. The ability to drive yourself home and sleep in your cozy bed trumps any idea of piling in on your friend’s bedroom floor. This isn’t a bad thing, but I think we have forgotten how much fun sleepovers can be: They are what make weekends something to get excited for, and without them, my Fridays and Saturdays have gotten more stale.

I miss my freshman year when my friends and I would stay over at someone’s house Friday night and with nothing better to do, make fun out of nothing, aimlessly walk around downtown Mill Valley. Whether that was hide and seek (we actually still play that), making a candy run to 7/11, or bumping into what felt like half our grade at Phyllis’, we all stayed out longer knowing we would eventually retire to someone’s house and stay the night. Most times my friends and I would walk back to my house as it was closest to the downtown area. We would cram into a rotting den in our backyard; it looks like an abandoned tool shed, and is filled with cobwebs and mold. What mattered more though was watching movies and playing Xbox with each other until the early a.m. Even though sleeping in the den meant filling your lungs with mold and dust, it was worth it. 

I suppose it isn’t specifically the event of sleepovers that I miss, but more the carefree hangouts I had earlier in high school. I find myself judging whether I have the time to hang out with friends as soon as the final bell rings on Friday. It seems now that with scrambling to finish college applications, and stressing about homework, I forget how great a time and stress relieving sleepovers are. It sounds silly to be so serious about something so childish, but I don’t care, I am not yet ready to say goodbye to sleepovers. So join me in the fight to bring these beautiful works of art back into the lives of teenagers. 2020 shall be the year of the slumber party.