Hannah Oara, North Carolina State University, Class of 2009

11/4/2009

2006 Essay Runner Up

The Emperor Had no Clothes

First college years bring so many new experiences in our lives! We start to make real choices for ourselves, we meet new people and we encounter new social situations. The new freedom is like a cool breeze on which we can extend our wings and fly, not in our dreams and imagination but for real. It does not come without some pain, as the pressure to perform well academically, to balance one's budget and to still have an active social life is taking its toll. We encounter an exciting but dangerous new combination of freedom, desire to experiment and a real need to release some of the day-to-day pressures. One apparent solution for all these needs, desires and pressures is to engage in heavy drinking. It looks, at least at first, as a low risk solution.

So we drink…

We drink because when our friends drink we have to join them. It's almost a social stigma to be seen as mama's boy or girl who is afraid of alcohol. Saying no to alcohol may be seen as a rejection of friends, and they may in turn reject you.

We drink because we want to experiment. How does it feel to be really drunk? What kind of sensations do you feel? Does this open some new windows towards some yet unknown facets of life?

We drink because it's cool! In fact it's so cool that you can even brag about it. I once happened to glace to the screen of a friend's computer. She was having an online conversation with one of her girlfriends. "What did you do last night?" her friend asked her. "I drunk until I passed out," my friend responded. It was a lie, for I knew that the previous night she was not drinking at all.

We drink because drinking makes one happy. The feeling of happiness, even artificially induced, is so desirable that even a bad hangover may be quickly forgotten.

We also drink to forget. The pressures and pains of life may sometimes become intolerable, but we hold the key to the escape door. The burden may be heavy, but we can set it aside for a while.

Sometimes we drink to overcome inhibitions. "Do you dare to…?" No, in general I do not dare. There is that inside voice of caution or fear or conscience that makes me pull back. However, a few drinks may help shut down that voice.

It all looks and sounds great, but after a few encounters with alcohol, things start to turn in unexpected directions. Some of us may find the drinking experience totally unattractive. I suppose there are those that are not even curious to try, but there are certainly many who tried once or twice and than said, "Not for me." Perhaps many discover that the promise was false and not worth the pain or trouble. The emperor had no clothes.

I hope most of us, college students, come to this point of maturity. A few heavy drinking experiences, if they happened, are left behind, hopefully forgotten as unpleasant little reminders of some stupid, childish behavior. There are unfortunately those that cannot move further, cannot climb over the hill and are left in the pit. Their lives may be destroyed, emptied of meaning, devoid of the basic joys of life.

How can we then say no, either before or after we have experienced some heavy drinking? There are perhaps many answers, but I believe that there is a way to summarize all of them. For every false promise of alcohol, find a real answer!

No, it's not a sign of real friendship to join in real drinking. Pull your friends out, don't let them pull you in the pit. When life opens the large window of freedom, experience the real joys of life, not its miseries. It's cool to love, to win, to travel, to discover new real worlds, not to lay in alcoholic stupor. Taste the happiness that goes beyond the few hours of alcoholic stupor. Find refuge in what uplifts you, not in what demeans you. Overcome fear by acquiring inner strength, not by abandoning judgment.

I believe that in a strange way heavy drinking is in great measure the result of a lack of imagination. One cannot see the amazing possibilities that life opens during college years, just as he or she cannot see the painful and often tragic consequences of heavy drinking. Fortunately, imagination may be helped. Friends may talk with friends; proof may come not only through words, but also by the example of inner strength, good judgment and real happiness without the help of alcohol. I feel that when groups of students redefine what "cool" means, dare to take positive challenges and collectively experience the good things in life, alcohol is loosing its false attraction.

There could be other eye openers, like the AlcoholEdu program in which I took part. My limited life experience did not automatically allow me to see all the negative aspects of heavy drinking. When it comes to bad judgments and wrong turns, it's so much better to learn from others rather then from your own experience. I believe AlcoholEdu has helped me both intellectually and emotionally, opening my eyes to realities on which I had too little time to reflect before. By treating me as an adult who needs to make choices in an informed manner, it helped me to step to a new level of maturity. From this elevated ground I can see why I do not want to even experience heavy drinking. I hope that in turn I'll be able to spread the AlcoholEdu's educational message through both words and personal example.