Why We Drink;
An Essay on the Changing Mode and Modalities of Alcohol Culture in Particular in the Circle Apartment 21-02, in Response to a Justly Deserved Judicial Referral
By Colleen Danger Goodhue
We have freed ourselves from economic oppression from the
In the past two and a half years, my current roommate and dear friend Katie O’Driscoll and I have consumed alcohol (sometimes in excess) in four different states and for countless special occasions. Like many college students, these incidents have been our epic tales that we have lived to tell. So on the eve of her new life as a legal alcohol-consuming adult, we were left to wonder what was left for us to do. We decided to throw a keg party, a huge bash for all our friends to celebrate, epically, this event. We were not wise in our party planning and ended up with far too many guests, some of whom were not even invited. Rightly so, the police saw freshmen with red Solo cups on our front porch, wrote us up and took away our shining chunk of metallic and alcoholic glory.
After our judicial referral, reclamation and returning of said keg, I’ve had the time to reflect upon our definition of epic.
All in all, we don’t need huge parties with all of our friends there. With so many people, there’s not even the ability to spend quality time with many or any of them. With large quantities of alcohol, it will simply be a room full of drunk people shouting above each other. If we do chose to continue having alcohol as a part of our epic stories, I feel that it should be in small, controlled groups with small, controlled amounts of alcohol. The epic greatness will be the camaraderie, conversation and bonding shared over a few beers or glasses of wine. Maybe instead it can be going out to bars, since we are legally able to, and spending the night out on the town instead of in our apartment, where we spend far too much time anyhow.
If we do have parties though, they will be small and invitation only. Though we are thankful for the upperclassmen who held parties that we crashed when we were freshmen, I don’t feel the need to be that outlet for other underclassmen. They can drink in their dorm room, like we often did. I hope that they will be as responsible as we once were and will now continue to be after this event.
In reflecting upon this event, I am grateful for the insight I have gained about how we can change the modes and modalities of our alcohol consumption and definition of what is epic and how we can better spend the time we have trying to create lasting memories.
