Looking back, my freshman year has been incredible. I made a million new friends and a few really close ones. I tried many different things, including pickleball, facing the brutal University of Connecticut winds and The Daily Campus. I braved the sticky tables at South Dining Hall for Late Night with my friends. I watched UConn Women’s Basketball win their 12th national championship. In every way, I’ve had the best first year of college that I wouldn’t trade for the world. And I did it all without drinking.
You would think it goes without saying that college campuses are plagued by the use of alcohol, but since we seem dangerously apathetic toward that fact, I’ll bite. Alcohol really is a big problem. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that around 14% of college students have alcohol abuse disorders and in 2023, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that around 30% of college students reported binge drinking. While these numbers aren’t too far off the national average (which is pretty bad itself), isn’t that a problem? UConn is first and foremost a university and a place for students to learn and grow. Why should it harbor this kind of environment?
Now, I’m not trying to say that every college student is secretly an alcoholic. In reality, about half don’t drink at all, and that is actually the root of the problem. Even though by the numbers it’s normal not to drink, it’s all too easy to find yourself in circles where that couldn’t feel any farther from the truth. In that position, why and how could you say no? That’s where the real danger lies: the overwhelming narrative that it’s okay and normal to toss back six, seven, eight or more drinks in a night, that the definition of an alcoholic really is too harsh and that puking in the bushes while trying to find your way back home from a frat house is just part of the college experience. It’s all too engrained in the collective consciousness and it’s infecting our brains.
Now, I know this argument is bound to be met by claims that drinking is fun, a way to make friends or how you let loose. Having abstained from it, I can’t confirm nor deny that, but I can tell you that I do all those things anyway. And maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t giving yourself something to get addicted to rub you the wrong way? It’s like crossing a busy street without looking; yeah, I might make it to the other side, but who cares? Chances are I’m getting hit. It just doesn’t make sense to willingly put your health at risk for a little bit of fun that you can have otherwise.
Setting aside the legal drinking age, the fact that alcohol is responsible for 100,000 cancer cases in the U.S. every year and that the World Health Organization holds that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, one could argue that there are responsible and safe ways to drink. Maybe that’s a beer with friends, a glass of wine at dinner or even a couple of shots in your dorm. Nevertheless, now is just not the time to do it.
Our college years are crucial to our growth. Throughout adolescence we are still blessed with great brain plasticity, which is what gives us the potential for great personal development and learning. In my opinion, this is the real value of college: taking the time to figure out your passions, values and identity. Heavy drinking has been found to change the brain’s normal development patterns and impair proper emotional and cognitive functioning. Besides the facts, constantly being under the influence of something is also just antithetical to this kind of growth. How can you be mindful when you’re always looking for some distraction?
The way I see it, by drinking, you’re just putting yourself in harm’s way for no appreciable reason. I swear you don’t need it to have fun, friends or fulfilling college years; you’ll actually have a better time without it because you’ll have a greater ability to grow thoughtfully into who you want to be.
All I’m saying is this: don’t buy into the twisted portrayal of the “college experience,” don’t think that you have to do anything. Instead think for a moment before you reach for the next Solo cup.