Friday, October 24, 2008
live and let live
Opinion Piece
First year’s all about finding your feet, making mistakes and growing up, so why so many people have concerned themselves with alcohol and drug abuse on campus is beyond me. It’s been said again and again, you are at University to study not to drink away your parent’s money. Believe me, your parents would prefer you get it out of your system when you are 19 then to start at 39.
Anyway, who cares? If you want to drink then drink, if you want to smoke a hallucinogenic substance then smoke it, it’s your life and it’s your choice. You’re at university to discover the person you are going to become. If you have to get drunk and stumble around in a gutter with writing on your forehead to realise that nothing good comes from excessive alcohol consumption then do it. If you drink so much that you fight with your best friend and hurt them but it makes you realise how special they really are then do it .If you smoke too much weed and you can’t study and you end up failing a test but it makes your realise that smoking weed maybe isn’t such a good idea then do it. If you can realise all of these things without abusing addictive substances then give yourself a pat on the back and leave the people who can’t alone.
As you experience things you will find that you - hopefully - start to develop some principles, e.g. I can’t go out tonight, Hannah, I am writing a law test tomorrow morning and you know what happened last time. If you are lucky enough to have some principles then you stand by them, whether or not people accept them. I am sorry if I sound like I’m standing on a pedestal shouting down at the ignorant masses, but let it be known that I am a second year, that I made all of the aforementioned horrific mistakes but that I came out relatively unscathed.
All I’m saying is that first year is one of turmoil, of bad decisions, of awkward moments, of hilarity and above all of growing up. The only way you can ever know what makes you truly happy is by experimenting with everything you have at your disposal. It’s not anyone’s place to judge you or tell you what you are doing is wrong. If you want to pimp around in 90s get up then do it, if you want to scrape past on 50% that’s your choice, if you want to avoid Friars and alcohol and find other ways of making yourself happy then good for you.
Just remember that there is no other time in your life when you can act as selfishly as when you are young. Before you realise it responsibility will come knocking and that knock will send your youth fleeting through the window. So reserve your judgement and give your peers an equal opportunity to make horrific mistakes. If you never make them then you will never learn.
Labels: drinking, drugs, first year
Posted by opinionplease at 1:49 PM