College is all about drinking, drugs and hooking up? I mean that's a part of it, I guess. College is a time for socializing, growing as a person and getting that degree. With more people your age around than there will ever be in the rest of your life comes dating, parties and everyone just wanting to live it up during their last teenage years and early 20s.

Drinking is a part of college and if parents think their kids (no matter how perfect they were in high school) are going to college and never going to drink, they're lying to themselves. The thing is, new experiences are great, and whether the experience is good or bad you learn something from it. I thankfully learned a lot about drinking before college, and I've learned a lot about it going to college.

There's a culture around partying, and it's easy to get sucked in when you first move in. So in my opinion, it's good for 18-year-olds to have a little experience. When it comes to meeting new people, the first week you'll meet dozens, and some of them will be at parties. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it's easier to talk to new people when you're slightly intoxicated and that's where it all starts because everyone's trying to have a good time, make new friends and deal with the sometimes crippling stress of college. We're all living for the weekends. Why not unwind, relax and have a little fun after you worked so hard all week?

There are issues with college alcohol culture because it's socially acceptable to be trashed all the time, it's fine to jokingly call yourself an alcoholic, it's alright to blackout every other weekend and "everyone's been in trouble for drinking." Everyone's just tying to get drunk and trying to make it, but alcoholism isn't cool. Never remembering your weekend isn't cool. I'm not going to sit here and say I've never drank before and I'm not judging or placing blame on anyone. But, we need to acknowledge that there's a problem. There's a blackout culture, everyone's said: "I love free alcohol," and what's the price? Is this an issue and where do we draw the line? This isn't a "party school" issue either. Let's be honest, every school is a party school if you want it to be.