Among the stereotypes of a college life are the excessive hours of study and loads of stress to which students are often prone. With those expectations, however, the perception that alcohol serves as a “relaxer” or “happy drink” for college students is also included.
But is it really necessary? If alcohol is the only thing with which students can “have a good time” or “get away from it all,” then there is something to be said about that individual.
Everyone who has had even a sip of alcohol has done so for a variety of reasons: “just because,” to experiment, because they like it or because of peer pressure. But, at the same time, it is OK if someone prefers not to drink-especially because “everyone else is doing it.”
From personal account, I have refrained from drinking or even tasting alcohol until I absolutely desired to finally have a drink. And that moment came about a week and a half after I turned 21.
Drinking has never been a big thing for me. The fact that I was not of legal age to drink was never a factor in my decision. Moreover, my opposition to drinking had nothing to do with my age and even less to do with my religion (which is Roman Catholic).
The urge to really drink just never hit me … or at least it never hit so hard that I felt I should drink because most everyone else did. Once I decided that I would like to have my first drink of alcohol, I made sure it was my decision alone and not the decision of my peers.
In fact, for a long time, I was known as the “girl with the apple cider” at all social gatherings, and I was always the designated driver. No one else had a drink like mine, and that made me different because I could still imbibe something and not necessarily have to be buzzed to feel like I was having a good time. That was-and might still be-my thing.
What reassured me even more about my bouts with apple cider is that people respected that. Though some people joked with me or laughed at me, no one ever pressured me into doing something for which I was simply not ready.
Now, I have nothing against drinking or against those who decide to do so. But it is not for everyone.
But I do become concerned when people become so dependent on this chemical — society’s leading drug — that they feel it is their only escape from the rest of the world. At that point, the person who depends on alcohol so much trades in his or her image and integrity for a 12 oz. bottle of foaming beer or a few shots of “the hard stuff.”
I have seen it happen, and though I am not an experienced drinker, I can see the effects alcohol has had on people. It is saddening, confusing and, most of all, painful.
That, perhaps, is one of the determining factors that has reaffirmed my belief that it is not always necessary to drink.
Being yourself is more important, and, if that means having an occasional drink, that is fine. But to drink in order to match someone else is not; that is when the alcohol and the peer group make the person.
My purpose here is not to say, “Don’t drink,” “Don’t drink too much” or “Please drink carefully.”
I simply wanted to reassure that those who do drink do so for the right reasons, with control and with awareness of their surroundings. And to those who are leery of alcohol being a necessary part of living up the college life, make sure it is your college life and not everyone else’s.
As for my experience with drinking, it was not unfavorable. There have been a few times in which I have sat down to have a drink again; but I have yet to finish a drink within less than half an hour.
Alcohol is an acquired taste, after all, and for the time being, I can do nothing more than simply sip.
What I learned from drinking is that I really do not need it in my own life. More than anything, I learned that I have had so much more fun sticking to my bottle of apple cider because alcohol generally makes me feel tired.
If and when I decide to have another drink, however, it will be by my own prerogative … because I want to do so. That is how it should be.
Araceli Esparza, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at esparzaa@ulv.edu.
