Weekends are dead on campus. On Saturdays and Sundays, it feels like the whole campus is sleeping, preparing for the coming school week.
One thing I have heard many of my classmates and friends say is there is nothing to do in Fargo/Moorhead on the weekends. Usually the claim is that unless you are 21 and can go to bars on Broadway, there is next to nothing to do.
On the contrary, the Fargo/Moorhead area is bustling with activity on the weekends, and we, as students, have a unique opportunity to take advantage of a wide variety of events. For example, two Fridays ago I ventured to North Dakota State University’s campus for the first time to see the Fargo Symphony, which happens to have many performers from Concordia’s faculty and student body. The symphony played three selections over the course of the evening including the score from the movie “Psycho” by Bernard Herrmann, “Three Hallucinations” from “Altered States” by John Corigliano, and “Symphonie Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz. Under different circumstances, I would never have considered going to the Symphony due to the price of tickets. A normal adult ticket runs at around 30 dollars, but for college students, tickets were only 5 dollars. My friends and I, four of us in total, were able to see a professional symphony for less than the cost of one adult ticket.
Student discounts offered at places like NDSU’s concert hall and the Rourke Art Museum, which is just down the street from Concordia and admits students for free, make it easier for us to explore the Fargo/Moorhead area while we can. Being a student is tough. Balancing school, work, a social life, and a little time for rest doesn’t make it easy, but the community does a good job of acknowledging this busy time in our lives. I am just now starting to take advantage of my identity as a student and I regret not using it more during my freshman year. Now that I know about the power of my student ID, I hope to go to more symphonies, concerts, film festivals and even restaurants.
I have never really understood the reasoning behind having nothing to do on weekends. Sure, Fargo/Moorhead is not as big as Minneapolis or Chicago, but I’ve found that this area has so much unique flair. Spicy Pie, Deeks, Pizza Patrol, and Rhombus Guys are just some of the pizza places worth trying. Coffee shops rival pizza places in number, with great ones like Twenty Below, Babb’s, and Atomic Coffee, all just a few minutes away from campus. Money can often be a roadblock standing in the way of exploring, but I’ve found that student discounts make it immeasurably easier to keep costs down. Often, all you have to do is ask if a student discount is offered when paying for a ticket or a meal.
Another issue that often comes up when wanting to partake in weekend activities is transportation. It can be potentially problematic if you or none of your friends has a vehicle on campus. Your student ID provides the solution for that too. Want to go to Buffalo Wild Wings on Sunday night for student half price wings but don’t have a car? Public transportation is the answer. Concordia students can take the MATBUS for free with their student ID.
There is really no excuse to not take advantage of what Concordia’s surrounding area has to offer. Our student IDs do way more than just get us into DS three times a day or provide our late-night study snacks. It opens a lot of doors for us that could potentially be closed in the future. Take advantage of being a student while you can. The opportunities we have now are not going to stick around forever.
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