By Darren Casserly
If you’re reading this, it means you’ve survived unofficial RAG Week, and for that I applaud you. Even compared to previous years, it was like someone let the patients of an insane asylum out onto the streets of Galway for a week and let them run wild.
I mean, if you’re drunk before noon life is either really good, or really bad, or it’s RAG Week, so anything goes. Saying this, it can be some of the best nights of the year, but going out more than two or three nights sounds expensive and reckless to say the least.
I still can’t wrap my head around how some students can afford a full Week of drinking, I thought the stereotype was that students never have any money, but I suppose that’s just me. On top of that I’d think that it would be hard to drop work for an entire week, it seems like people are putting themselves under a lot of pressure for the next few weeks.
As it was RAG Week it also meant that lecture halls were half empty which, depending on how interactive you like lectures to be, it was the best or worst week of the year. If you’re like me and you don’t really care, then there’s no difference at all.
On the other hand, a tutorial can be really awkward if there are only two or three students there and you’re just waiting to get out as fast as you can, especially when the tutor has a hatred for RAG Week and they make you suffer for it. Did you expect everyone to show up? Did you not see the people drink bottles of Buckfast in Donegal jerseys at 10 o’clock in the morning? I know I’m complaining about nothing, but what people assume there’s going to be full attendance during RAG Week?
On a very similar note, recently I was reading the last issue of SIN. More specifically an article about how complaining can be bad for your mental health by Niamh Casey. This article really made me think. If complaining is so bad for you then why does everyone do it and then I realised, it was RAG Week, where people are encouraged to drink so excessively it could lead to organ failure.
I, more than most people, like a good rant and if you’ve been a long-time reader of my articles you’ll know I pride myself on being able to make a mountain out of a molehill and then complain about it. However, the end of Niamh’s article is about being able to strike a balance and to not let complaining take over every conversation, and this made me feel a little better. And anyways, no one likes a complainer…
