Getting blackout drunk every weekend is like routine for a lot of college students. One drink turns into five or six, and suddenly, you realize your body is slightly buzzing, and your vision starts to fade into blurs. The next morning, you wake up and can’t remember a thing after your last shot of Captain Morgan. And, if you’re lucky, you didn’t do anything too regrettable or embarrassing while in your drunken blindness.
Getting wasted at parties with friends is OK to an extreme. I’ve seen my fair share of people looking like death at parties. Usually, when someone is slumped over in an arm chair or swaying back and forth against a wall, there are only a couple things people do.
Some people laugh or cheer, which only justifies the person’s behavior and encourages it more. Or sometimes a person will take control and get the poor soul a glass of water or a slice of party bread.
People laugh when they hear stories about a friend getting wasted and jumping in the bay naked, but is it really funny that someone is drinking him or herself to the point of no control?
A recent New York Times article pointed out that college students blacking out often could be related to unhealthy stress coping methods.
Stress for most students begins to build throughout the school week. Once you’re halfway through, or sooner, all you want to do is throw your assignments off a balcony and crack a beer open with some friends. But just as the weekend arrives, the assignments of the week whisper in your ear, constantly reminding you of your responsibilities.
So instead, you push aside all those obligations until Sunday and get totally trashed the rest of the time. When you’re trashed, you have no responsibilities, right? All you have to do is say, “I was totally blacked out that night,” and suddenly, you’ve redeemed your “get out of jail free” card and face no repercussions of that evening.
“So the mentality behind the decision to black out boils down to the simple question of why not?” the New York Times article wrote.
We’re free from parents at school, and it’s ultimately up to us if we choose to black out or not. Students justify blacking out because they’re walking everywhere and think they’re familiar enough with the area. And even if they don’t, they’ll assume a friend would take care of them and make sure they got home.
Blacking out isn’t the solution to your problems. It won’t complete your assignments, clean your apartment or pay the bills. All it does is make you forget the best years of your life.
Drinking with friends and strangers you’ve yet to meet is just one of the many awesome thing you get to do at college. Everyone sharing the same space and trying to have a good time is what college is about. Why would anyone want to get so drunk they can’t remember the good memories they make?
Email Laura Schmidt at opinions@cardinalpointsonline.com
