When I landed my spot in a house only minutes from campus I was ecstatic.‘ Like many other University of Massachusetts students, I love partying, and I knew my house had potential for countless crazy nights. When the third weekend approached my roommates and I devised plans for a kickoff party, three kegs, loud music and tons of people.‘

My greatest fear was the overabundance of police in Amherst and their known tendency to make a presence. As we head toward the final weeks of the school year, it turns out the police should have been my last concern. Instead, I should have focused on stripping my entire house to the bare bones and bolt locking every single room as if it were a safe. Unfortunately, I found this out the hard way.

Digital camera, two iPods, hockey stick, ski pole, bottle of gin, bottle of vodka, package of Fig Newtons, bottle of Jaeger, two bottles of champagne, toaster, wireless router, 30 pills of Adderall, huge poster of the Fantanas, car window, two car antennas, TV remote, ‘Good Will Hunting’ DVD, keg tap and whatever else I’m forgetting.

This is the list of stolen items from my house throughout the year, the price paid for inviting my friends over for a good time.‘ Keep in mind, my roommates and I have continually responded by taking the necessary precautions.‘ But, no matter how hard we try, something always disappears, excluding any physical damage to the house.‘

Apparently my ‘prime location’ is also prime for hundreds of drunk students ‘- with absolutely no relation to anyone inside ‘- to venture into my house. My weakness, shared by the majority of my roommates, is being laid back, friendly and not very aggressive. I usually tell my friends they can bring whomever they would like and don’t bother standing at the door to monitor every head that walks through. This dynamic turned out to be very costly and now I regret being a ‘nice guy’ all the time.‘

So maybe I should just blame myself. I chose to have the parties. I had the laid-back attitude. Well, whether this is case or not I still have reason to be upset and a message to send out.‘ Students from UMass like to drink; this is common knowledge. However, something I think a lot of people seem to forget is that drinking impairs your judgment.

This is the reason you make that drunken phone call or have sex with that girl you didn’t like or decide to punch the police officer in the head. Having hundreds of drunk students in your house reminds you of this. For some reason, and I’m sure a lot of you know exactly what I’m talking about, drunk people all of sudden identify stealing as a fun thing to do.‘ Taking a souvenir from some stranger’s house, even a friend’s house, is A-ok. And if there’s nothing to steal, well then, breaking something should do the trick.‘

You may have no idea what I’m talking about and think I just have a ton of sketchy friends or something. Well unfortunately that isn’t the case. Many of you can identify with that frame of mind and are reinforcing the fact that it was ‘just because I was so wasted.’ Perhaps alcohol is the culprit, but unlike the University, I understand that students won’t stop drinking or start drinking less.

Therefore, I can only attempt to ingrain in your head that stupid, careless drunk decisions, attitudes and actions come at others’ expenses. Like myself.‘

Daniel Schwartz is a UMass student. He can be reached at [email protected].