College culture is dominated by an ever-apparent need to work hard and play even harder. For the first time in your life you are on your own -- free of parental holds on your life or people who try and suck the fun out of everything. Maybe you even copped a fake ID just because it’s the only acceptable time in your life when you can do that.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Weekends are filled with vague memories distorted by alcohol and bad decisions. These two things seem to go hand in hand. But who's to say that they have to.
There is an inherent social pressure that college students are under. We pregame everything, even our pregames, because our social skills are so lacking that we have to use alcohol as our safety blanket.
Due to an influx of and reliance on technology and social interactions that actually never have to occur in person, people feel they need something to cling on to. They feel awkward and uncomfortable in social situations.
In a way, alcohol to a college student is equivalent to a 3-year-old's "blankie." Yeah, it makes things easier, it makes you more courageous, and it makes you feel like making out with that guy from your chem lab is a great idea.
But even 3-year-olds think they need their blanket when they really don’t. It’s something that they cling to because they aren’t secure in themselves. The same goes for alcohol. We don’t need it to have fun or to talk to that person that we have always wanted to, but since it is always present, it becomes easy to rely on it for a good time, for security, and for experiences.
When you were a child, your blanket was there to comfort you, make you feel like the bravest best possible version of yourself, and help you sleep at night. At some point or another, other kids started leaving their blankets under their beds and moved on without it. Eventually you outgrew the phase too; you were fine.
The hard truth surfaces when we realize that eventually we will leave our college, "blankie"-bearing years at some point, and we'll be forced to act as functioning adults who can’t pregame a big presentation with corporate, and who don’t have time or money to booze before every blind date we are set up on.
Put value and trust in yourself. Take pride in your ability to create your own experiences with or without alcohol. Don’t become reliant on something else to have fun all the time. In other words, be secure in yourself.
