The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 9/22/05 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Amanda Morris The spectre of drinking looms large over college freshman

I arrived on campus filled with uncontrollable excitement and fear. I had been receiving publications from Emerson all summer long but I was on high alert for the information regarding my learning communities, which represent a group of students who live together on one of the themed floors of the residence hall building.

I was overjoyed to find that they encompassed various areas of interest, including one I never expected to see at a college-Wellness.

Emerson's Wellness Learning Community focuses on bringing together people who choose healthy lifestyles, ranging from abstinence of drugs, alcohol and tobacco to choosing to focus on the physical well-being of the body.

Throughout high school, I chose to refrain from participating in the use of such substances, and although the majority of people around me chose the contrary, I remained firm in my personal decision.

I believe that I can have just as much fun on a weekend without altering my mental or physical state and I view my good health as a blessing-a gift that should not be deliberately put at risk for a temporary feeling of satisfaction.

I find myself grappling with my decision to abstain from these substances.

There are times when my personal choices are drawn into debate, either by my own judgment or in the heat of another's. The pressure from friends and the fact that alcohol has become accepted as a means of recreation often forces me to reconsider my decision.

Sometimes people comment on the moral caliber of my character, suggesting that my decisions are ridiculous because I have never before experienced the sensations associated with alcohol.

And while I do believe that personal experience is necessary to make sound judgments, I have seen the effects of alcohol on friends, families and our current culture and have found that it is, in this case, smarter to learn from other people's mistakes.

Our society seems to have developed this idea that "fun" has become synonymous with "getting drunk," and this growing trend is unacceptable.

I feared that college would bring an entirely different and more intense level of condemnation. I was afraid of being lost in the swarm of the majority-a majority dominated by alcohol users.

Continued...

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