Many people see college as a chance to get away from home and party the night away — I never saw college like that because I know that school comes first. As I enter my "roaring 20s," I found that by going to the few parties that I have attended, I don't need to drink to have fun or to fit in. I don't have to be hungover the next morning and fight the inevitable outcome that may be alcohol poisoning. I can save myself the pain and keep my body healthy in the process.

Beth Mcmurtrie says that more than 1,800 students die every year of alcohol-related causes.

In a series of reports by other researchers led by Ralph Hingson, they estimated that there were 1,442 "alcohol-related injury deaths" among college students in 1998 and that number grew to 1,647 deaths in 2001 and 1,825 in 2005 — it is steadily rising. About 1 in 4 college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind in class, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.

Between the increasing number of drunk-driving accidents, not all of which are caused by college students, the increasing number of sexual assaults, and the mental breakdown that follows after a night of downing three Cosmos and a shot of tequila, why drink to have fun?

Your friends are doing it, that's fine, but who's going to be sober enough to take care of them?

Who's going to be the responsible one?

I'll take being the designated driver and babysitter if it means that my friends are safe and not at risk of being harmed.

I'll be the lame girl if it means someone's mom doesn't get a call saying her child is in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. I'll be the "boring one" who makes sure someone's dad isn't called to come bail them out of a holding cell at 2 a.m.

I'll be that person over piss-drunk any day.

I chose early on, before I could drink, that I wouldn't be the girl who relied on alcohol to have fun. I can dance to any song and turn my area of the party into a mosh-pit without drinking, that's just my personality. I didn't rely on alcohol when I was younger, so I see no purpose in relying on it now. I'll be on my natural crackhead energy all day, every day if that means myself, my group, and the people we party with, can get home safely because I don't want to be another statistic that someone's written about.