College: Part 2, Drinking

In my last post I made quite a brazen statement about alcohol and it's relationship with college, and I stand by it; it really is one of the most important social aspects of a students college experience. Weather you are at a party school like Arizona, or a small liberal arts school like Albertus, there is going to be plenty of alcohol available, I repeat, PLENTY OF ALCOHOL AVAILABLE! If you think otherwise or you disagree because you personally did not drink during college then I feel bad for you because you missed out on one hell of a time. Now before people start to call me an irresponsible booze pusher let me make one thing clear, I am a supporter of social drinking, not binge drinking.
      The problem with college kids is that there is an extremely fine line between being a social drinker and a binge drinker, and if your not careful, I mean real fucking careful, you can end up on a slippery slope with the drink. Now that being said lets go over some of the positive aspects of drinking:

• Booze can be an excellent common ground that can be found between two new people meeting each other, how many people get to know one another over sharing a beer, its natural
• There is a reason why its called "liquid courage," because it helps ease the nerves and make you feel more confidant
• Its a great way to relieve stress, nothing feels quite like that first sip of an ice cold beer after a rough day

      Now before you go on thinking that I think alcohol is all milk and honey, there is one huge elephant in the room when it comes to college drinking, EXPERIENCE. Unfortunately like with all substances alcohol requires a gentle ease into it which most people do not heed. Most kids have never drank before they came to college, maybe they got drunk once or twice from their parents liquor cabinet, but they never seen anything like the availability of booze that college has to offer. However once you find your own personal tolerance, then the real fun begins.
      Now I would be a telling a lie if I never said that alcohol fucked me one way or another during college, in fact It was booze that was the major factor why my senior year sucked so much. It was junior year and I was living in McAullife Hall, a real kick ass Victorian era mansion converted into dorms. This place was straight out of a Hitchcock flick, and as a horror buff it was awesome to be living in the "psycho house." The only problem with McAullife was that it was a dry dorm, no alcohol, NO FUCKING ALCOHOL!?!?!?
Yea it sucked that the dorm was dry but do you think that anyone obeyed that rule? HELL NO! So one night I go to a "classy party," that's where everyone dressed up in suite and ties and dresses and we all act like upper crust douche bags for the night. Everything was going great, the liquor was flowing, the chicks were getting loose, everyone was having a great time. Now along with the bogus dry dorm aspect of McAullife it also had a 10pm quiet hour rule, now this was not normally a problem but when you get 15 to 20 kids in one room, shits going to get loud. Now the RA (residential advisor) at the time was a real cool chick, she'd let you get away with alot as long as you showed her respect. Well we were so goddamn loud she had to come ask us to be quiet twice, well she had to come a third time and third times the charm, she came in, saw the booze and we all got written up. At first I thought it was no big deal, I pay a fine say I'm sorry and that's that. Unfortunately one of the punishments they gave me was that I was ineligible for room draw next year, what did that mean? It means I have no say on who my roommate was senior year, I had no say in which dorm I could live in, I was stuck wherever they decided to put me.
      Because of this my senior year was by far the worst year in my college days when it should have been the best, and it was all because I was caught with liquor. Now that being said would I have changed anything? Yea, I would have been more careful, I don't blame booze for that, I blame myself for being stupid enough to get caught.
      College and alcohol go hand in hand, its like peanut butter and jelly. It can't be denied no matter how much people want it to be; campus authorities spend too much time trying to suppress alcohol on campus when they should be spending more time educating kids on booze, because you cant stop it, there is always going to be alcohol at college, so we might as well educate kids so they can make smarter decisions instead of persecuting them for drinking.
      College is probably the best time in someones life who went there. It is a time in your life that helps define who you become as an adult, and for better or worse alcohol plays a part in this, just another chess piece on the college chess board.