Alcohol Dominates Student Life

In the United States, it is illegal for an individual under the age of 21 to drink alcohol. Most other countries in the world either do not have an age limit for drinking alcohol or the age is 18 rather than 21. The debate about lowering the drinking age in the States or abolishing the law altogether is a heated one, but regardless of whether or not the law is changed, the fact remains that alcohol is a dominant part of student life.

I live on-campus at my university, and my university campus is a dry campus¹, but no campus is truly “dry.” There are always ways to get alcohol even if you are underage, and it’s not uncommon to see transports² on the weekends because of some students partying too hard. It seems like student life revolves around alcohol, and students become obsessed with it as they adapt the “it’s not fun unless alcohol is involved” attitude. A lot of the appeal to do with the “forbidden fruit”³ factor, but some of it has to do with media and culture, too.

I choose not to drink alcohol by choice; it has never been appealing to me because of both the taste as well as some existing family issues stemming from alcohol and other drugs. This doesn’t mean I judge those that do choose to drink; however, it means that I have a tendency to worry about my friends’ crazy, drunken antics because I usually am the one that is sober. But it does make me sad that alcohol is such a huge deal when it comes to getting a large group of friends together. If there is a choice between getting drunk with strangers at a random party or having fun with friends whilst hanging out, more often than not alcohol is chosen over friends. Alcohol is eternally present in student life, and the quest for getting as drunk as possible as often as possible affects all aspects of a university experience even if one chooses not to drink.

It seems as though alcohol is becoming the glue that keeps friends together, because if alcohol isn’t present at a party or other type of social gathering, people are no longer interested in being there and leave in search for drinks. The underlying assumption is that friends are forever, but the availability of alcohol is limited and therefore has first priority. I understand that people enjoy drinking alcohol, but I hope that they enjoy hanging out with their friends more than becoming good acquaintances with the bottle, because one is obviously more important than the other…

1. Dry campuses ban alcohol on the entire campus, regardless of a person’s age or an individual’s intent [↩]
2. When a student is ill a call is placed to the transportation system at my university and the student is taken to hospital [↩]
3. Legally speaking, alcohol is unattainable for minors, which makes it all the more appealing [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.