Sunday, August 30th

College Daze

I remember the first week of college. We all moved into the dorms early to register for classes, buy our books, and get settled in. The last weekend before school started, there was a huge party in our dorm. Every room on our floor was to provide a particular drink. We were the tequila room. The guys next door were the keg room. The gals down the hall, I remember, provided peppermint schnapps. I remember the peppermint schnapps, in particular, because it was a dark red version of the liquor which, when thrown up on a new white comforter, left a particularly harsh stain.

So, my collegiate drinking career began I had even attended my first class. I imagine my experience is not unlike many college students in the 80’s. From what I have seen, colleges are no different today.

Having been a high school teacher, I still keep up-to-date on some of my old students, mostly the girls. We are linked together via Facebook and MySpace and from time to time, I will check in with them and see how they are doing. I am almost always shocked at how these young, kind, sweet, caring things have been changed within their first semester of college.

Their pictures online reflect drinking, drunken sexual activity, and no interest in their studies. I shouldn’t be surprised, of course, because I was the same way. But to see a young girl evolve so quickly, influenced so strongly by her surroundings, is scary. And for every sexual or alcoholic action I am confronted with on their Facebook, I know there are many others that weren’t caught by a photographer.

I looked up some statistics on college drinking, and what I am seeing online is typical behavior. More than 300,000 of today’s college drinkers will die because of alcohol. Over 150,000 of this semester’s college students will drop out next year because of alcohol. The average college student spends over $900 each school year (twice the amount they spend on books) on alcohol. One-third of college students have missed classes because of alcohol.

Times, apparently, have not changed. Kids are still doing what I did twenty-five years ago. If you know a college student, talk to them, and let them know, somehow, not to make the same mistakes some of us already did.

Getting the word out: