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Remember back in high school when everything was so familiar? You knew everyone’s name, from the football jocks to the detention rats. It was all so much easier back then, wasn’t it? You took classes with kids you’ve known since you learned addition and subtraction and gossiped with your best friends in the locker room after hockey practice.
But then you graduate, and college-bound students are thrown into a community that makes them crave a return to the first time they fell off their bikes.
When you first enter this petrifying realm of higher education, “fitting in” automatically becomes a top priority. The last thing you want is to be “that kid” in the dorm known for having astonishing video game skills paired with a severe lack of social skills. There’s a common and relatively easy way to avoid this: alcohol.
For those looking for a way to connect with others around them, partying is a popular solution. Although popular, this notion isn’t always responsible. With the increasing amount of alcohol consumed comes an increasing change in who you are as a person. As these changes become regular weekend habits, a relationship with alcohol develops, and students learn the unique effects that alcohol has on them.
Generally, you start to drink because you want to do what everyone else is doing. The urge to relieve some stress and have a good time becomes prevalent. You don’t want the fun to end, so you keep drinking. With every step you take on this path of unwarranted drunkenness comes co-existing stages of personal change.
Every individual reacts to alcohol in different ways, thus developing different relationships with it. There are those who will dance on tables, take off their clothes, and grind-up on anything that gives them the time of day (or night). There are those who sulk in the corner and let the “beer tears” flow until they pass out. Then there are those who can casually drink, have some fun, and make it back to their room bruise and vomit-free.
It all comes down to how you use alcohol, as well as relate to it. Do you use it to fit in and make friends? Is it an emotional escape from the daunting relationships that already exist? Do you become the life of the party that you don’t remember? Or can you genuinely have a few drinks and make it through a night without walking into the cafeteria the following Monday with everyone staring and whispering? It all comes down to how this relationship develops and your responsibility of recognizing it. |
