When I woke up this morning to an email titled “Last Night’s Selfish and Reckless Behavior,” I was about as shocked as I am when it snows in Syracuse. If anything, I’m surprised it took this long at all for students to blatantly break the rules, despite the fact that residential instruction has not even begun.

Freshmen — with their first taste of freedom and, in many cases, a lack of real-world experiences and consequences — do not have the best reputation for decision-making. Even in pre-pandemic times, many freshmen come to college with heads full of ideas that college is “the best four years of your life,” and, as such, one needs to spend every second partying. At Syracuse University, which was recently named the #3 party school in America, the pressure to party is very real. Add the ever-present forces of peer pressure to freshmen in dorms who are now cooped up in “social pods” with strict measures concerning when they can go outside, who they can interact with — even when and what they can eat — and it’s no surprise the situation imploded.

Blaming the university is easy. Many have already criticized the idea of returning to in-person instruction, citing the risks it poses to professors and students even under responsibly-behaved circumstances. Others have wondered how a social gathering on the Quad — a location which I think represents how well-thought-out the freshmen’s plan was, seeing as how it’s perhaps the most obvious and visible place on campus — was not stopped sooner by the Department of Public Safety. These concerns are valid, and something the university needs to address. However, taking issue with administration needs to go hand-in-hand with taking personal responsibility.

As a current senior, I’ve been dissatisfied multiple times with administration while at SU, but I think Vice Chancellor Michael Haynie’s email statement, which said that “there was not a single student who gathered on the Quad last night who did not know and understand that it was wrong to do so,” is completely on-the-nose. I understand that it feels like our youth is being taken away from us. I understand that expecting freedom only to be met with strict requirements feels incredibly disappointing. I understand that following the requirements perfectly each and every day is a difficult task. But there’s way too much ground between a socially distanced trip to grab yourself a coffee and a massive party during a pandemic for me to be truly sympathetic.

Look, I want my life back too. I don’t want to live like this forever. Nobody does. That’s why these rules are in place. The sooner we start actually following the rules, the sooner we can get to a point where we can see our friends, go to the places we want to go and enjoy our lives again. I know it’s difficult not to give into temptation. That goes for us upperclassmen, too — I know all those broken bottles and crushed beer cans I see outside neighboring houses aren’t from freshmen.

The issue goes beyond whether or not residential instruction continues — which, given the circumstances, I’m not convinced is a good idea, even if it is a possibility. No matter what decisions the university makes, we still have the power to make our own personal decisions, and that power is more important than ever, as it affects the very lives of those around us.

We all desperately want our lives back. Let’s act like it.