The shirts are printed, the beer is being chilled, the Solo cups are stacked to the ceiling, and your green underwear is neatly folded. This can only mean one thing – it’s officially (or unofficially) St. Patrick’s Day here at U of I.

For the first time in 2008, every single student on campus has something to be proud of – our very own holiday that nobody can match. It’s the one Friday of the year that you’ll actually be up at 8AM, dressed, and ready to go. But instead of sitting in a lecture full of losers, you’ll be at a party starting off the day’s festivities. From impromptu power hours to endless games of beer pong and taps, what is usually your typical nighttime pregame is just the start of the greatest thing that’s happened to Champaign since Ron Zook came to town. You’ll party with that weirdo from class that you usually only copy off of. You’ll toast your green beer with those kids in your house a few years younger, who know everything about you when you still don’t know their names. You’ll even find that one cool TA, you know, the one who cancelled class for you today, and buy him a shot of something green, just because it’s the right thing to do. For once, everything is right on this campus.

But this beloved holiday isn’t just for current students – it’s the very reason all of us old ball alums actually come down to school once a year. We honestly get giddy because for us, it’s like going to Vegas. We know we shouldn’t be pounding beers from 8AM to 2AM, going bar-to-bar and creeping out every girl under 21, but hell, it only happens once a year, we don’t give a damn because it’s all in good fun.

When we were in school, we didn’t have anything to be proud of. Our football team was awful (except for 2001), our basketball team could never get it done (until 2005), and we didn’t even have a Chipotle/Starbucks/Noodles/Flat Top on campus. But when March rolled around (and occasionally February), nobody cared. It didn’t matter that our administration stuck it to us all the time (some things never change), or that the bars closed at 1AM (bet you didn’t know that one). It didn’t matter if you were in a face house or not Greek at all. It didn’t matter if you were a lazy Kines major or a dorky Enginerd. All that mattered is that we, the students of Illinois, had something to call our own. A day that would always go down in infamy, causing flashbacks of happiness, sadness, haziness, and drunkenness.

And that, my friends, is what this holiday is all about. Uniting the masses through green beer, funny toasts, goofy outfits, and shirts with taglines that make you jealous. No other school can claim this one; it’s all ours, no matter what those losers down at SIU think they’re doing. Madison can have its Halloween (which it sold out to Corporate America), and Indiana can keep its Lil 500 (who really wants to ride a bike all day?), because neither of them can even compare to what we have to offer.

Unlike those schools, whose administrations actually embrace their drinking-infused fictional holidays, ours is continuing its never-ending quest to screw us over. Whether you know it or not, the city/school/town has been trying to do everything within (and sometimes beyond) their power to ruin the last unique aspect to being an Illini. Last week, they actually sent a letter to your parents saying that they should urge you to come home this weekend because “Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day will lead to your death” (not in those exact words). I’m sorry, but how is telling mommy and daddy that we actually drink in college a respectable thing for an university to do? Last time I checked, we could all drive, vote, serve in the military, get married, get an abortion, get divorced, go on Real World, and even have sex without our parents’ consent.

What will never make any sense to me is that the city generates as much revenue through this weekend as they do through Homecoming…but you don’t see them making a big deal about anything then, do you? Even though the number of drinking tickets, hospital visits, and arrests are fairly identical, for some reason, having a non-school sponsored holiday gets them all pissed off. Can you even think about what the potential for this holiday could be if the school actually embraced it? We could have the streets blocked off, concerts all over campus (featuring Flo Rida), real leprechauns roaming around town, and Lucky Charms for every student…it would be amazing.

Our school needs to realize that this single holiday is what makes our campus great and everyone at other schools jealous. A few years ago, students from 37 different schools were given drinking tickets. Think about that. Students from schools out in Cali and down in Florida all came here, to our school, to wear funny shirts, pound green beer, and celebrate a fictional holiday, all because they heard the same thing you heard in high school – this is one party you can’t afford to miss. I guarantee that if the school threw an event of their own, regardless of what they offered (even the chance to touch Ron Zook’s hair) there’s no way they would attract kids from 37 schools.

So this weekend, we all have a mission. We need to go out harder, go out stronger, and go out safer than ever before. That means waking up earlier, drinking more green beer, making more friends jealous, and not getting behind the wheel, no matter what. You may not know who invented this glorious holiday, but it’s up to each of us to make sure it never dies.