What’s up, man? You chill bro? Okay, cool, this post is going to start now.

For some, 4/20 is time for like, you know, being okay with everything, and being one with the earth because everything is equal and we’re all made out of the same stuff. Did you know that the human body is 65% water? And that the earth is 71% water?

For others, it’s just a day to get like totes f’d up. Or maybe it’s your birthday (HOORAY!). Or Hitler’s birthday (BOO!). Or maybe, it just another day in April that ends in “y” where you have to go to work and be an adult.

Regardless, we have a really, like super-mellow roundup of people’s favorite 4/20 memories. Read them, and then maybe watch this. No judgement here.

 “My freshman year, I remember it was beautiful outside, so we smoked in my room in Hayden and then went out to WSP. As soon as we walk out, Ricky is right at the gate in his chef outfit smoking a blunt and he’s just like, “Be careful, y’all.” So we enter the park and it’s totally mobbed with people from every borough and bridge and tunnel and there’s like chalk stuff going on and tons of music and people fighting etc. Everyone was talking, feverishly, about how a helicopter was going to fly over at 4:20 and drop a huge package of weed into the park. Then at like 4:45 a helicopter flies over and everyone goes crazy yelling at this helicopter to drop it, but nothing ever happened. Then I found $20 on the ground.

“Last year I invited a couple friends over to smoke at my place. One of my buddies rolls up with literally eleven people I had never met in my tiny-ass apartment. I was already super-high, mind you, and this whole motley crew rolls through when I’m just trying to smoke another doobie and go outside because it was gorgeous out there, so I’m getting all antsy and the claustrophobic paranoia starts to kick in. Then all these kids each pull out their own proper bag of weed, so it was like, ‘Okay, I guess we have to smoke all of this now.’ So we all went to Tompkins Square and watched the dogs for a good half hour in complete silence.”

“Frosh year, we would pack 7+ people into Brittany bathrooms to take hits from a homemade waterfall bong. I took one too many and threw up. Viola.”

“Last 4/20 I smoked a joint by myself on the walk to my very lax internship, and when I got there I was told I needed to run an errand. GREAT. So they give me a $20 bill to get a metro pass and I’m at the station trying to buy two one-ways or whatever and the machine keeps saying, ‘MAXIMUM CHARGE $6.00.’ I’m not quite sure what that means so I try and try and try for ~10 minutes, until finally I realize the machine is saying ‘CHANGE’ (not ‘charge’) and it turns out my ‘change’ would be $14 or something. FED UP, I used my own metro pass and somehow found my way to this recording studio, where I had to drop off and wait for a flash drive to be loaded or something. Naturally I awkwardly sat in a darkly lit/nicely furnished room staring at this dude’s grinder for 20 minutes.”

“In high school my band played our first concert at a local cafe on 4/20. Naturally the entire stoner population of the school showed up, high as kites. One of my stoner friends, decked out head-to-toe in tye-dye, walks in and says to the first person he sees ‘Happy holidays!’ This person happened to be the cafe owner, an incredibly suburban never-smoked-pot-in-her-life black woman (who was not aware of the significance of 4/20 w/r/t cannabis).

“The show goes well, we make some money, and everyone has a good time. The next day, though, I receive the following email from the cafe owner:

‘….after I said good night to the crowd and wished you blessings for the weekend, he distinctly said to me “Happy Holidays.” The comment struck me at the moment, but I acted as if I hadn’t heard it.  When I was going home it bothered me.  I thought what holiday is coming up or had we just had. Then I remembered that Monday, April 16 was Emancipation Day.  I had heard about it on the news because it fell after the Sunday tax deadline and gave tax payers and extra day to file.  When I looked up Emancipation Day, my stomach turned.  I knew before looking it up what it was and what your friend meant.  I am not perfect, but I am not a racist, nor do I condone racism in any fashion or form.   I am not going to go into a dissertation about the poisin of racism, I think we all know.  I can’t do much about how people feel, but I can do something about it.  Your friend is no longer welcome here at the cafe.’

“My stoner friend got banned from a concert venue for wishing the proprietor ‘happy holidays’ on 4/20 because she thought he was a racist and referring to emancipation day.”

“It’s pretty ironic that my birthday is April 20th and I don’t really smoke weed. But when I was a freshman in Rubin, I was in feeling pretty college-y. You only turn 19 once, right? So my roomies wake me up, hand me a joint and tell me to smoke up because they have a ‘special birthday surprise’ waiting for me. So I desperately smoke a ton while gulping down some lovely breakfast mimosas. Then they tell me to get ready so they can take me to the surprise.

“I hop in the shower as it’s all hitting me; it’s super-hot, and the water is filling the whole room with steam. ‘Oh man,’ I’m thinking, ‘I need to lie down.’ So as I’m going to reach for a towel to take a break from the strenuous activity of bathing, I slip and fall, hitting my head on the sink and passing out. My roommates hear a huge thud, and even though they’re super-stoned they rush in and wake me up from my unconscious/really-high stupor on the bathroom floor, get me a towel, clothing, etc. and put me in bed while making sure I don’t die from a concussion (Look ma! No bleeding from the head!). Finally, almost two hours later, I’m feeling a little bit better, so they take me to the surprise— a birthday party picnic in the park that I was so late for, that people had to leave before I even arrived. We eat pop-tarts and nachos and then later I get chinese food. I haven’t smoked very much since.”

“I got high and watched a video that an ex-fling posted on Facebook of him playing/singing a song. Then I watched it three more times in a row trying to figure out if he was purposefully doing a Kermit the Frog voice.”

“Freshman year was the first time I’d smoked… A few other people and I climbed out a window onto scaffolding outside of Hayden and smoked out of a massive bong with flames on it (probably not the best idea, but whatever).  It was a decent first time. We could hear the insanity in the park, but just kind of chilled out there for a while.”

“When I went to Amsterdam, I smoked G13 or something that won the 2007 Cannabis Cup out of a vaporizer. At the ‘coffee shop’ where they sell weed, I ordered a hot chocolate, which was actually the most delicious drink I had ever tasted in my life. Then, my friends and I decided to ride bikes around the city, which included streets with no bike paths, so I kept swerving around crowds and running into countless people.”

“I can’t remember what I’ve done on 4/20. But I know what I’ll be doing this 4/20.”

Enjoy 4/20 the herbal way. Or go on with your regular day. That’s your prerogative.

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