Lessons for a Young Drinker

The best thing I learned about drinking is that you don’t have to drink so much to get drunk to have a good time, getting drunk shouldn’t be the goal of a night out. The drinks should be a complement to the fun night out. That way, you’re less likely to do something really stupid and outrageous.

I will never forget partying so much one time that i missed a 12:00 kick off for a Minnesota Game. I managed to wake up around two but could not stay awake to watch the game. Lesson is that now i will not seriously party the night before a Penn State game.

try it, shoot it, love it while you can/ because if she ever makes you sick you will never be able to drink it again

is don’t drink while on medication. I literally woke up in a gutter the next morning, and all 3 or 4 of my “blackout” nights were all around the same time on the same medication.

Also, I definitely agree with the “don’t drink to get drunk”. You can have a good time while drinking, but don’t just force the drinks down your throat in order to get drunk faster. Just drink at a reasonable pace, and if the party goes long enough you still may get drunk, but at least you’ll have a good time doing it. I know plenty of people (most still college kids, obviously), who will try to get drunk as fast as possible, and then usually wind up ending their nights by being too drunk (or passed out), hours before everyone else. Heck, I know too many people that will pre-drink before a party (I understand before going to a bar, since you save money, but before a party????), get drunk, and then go to the party and make fools of themselves. So frustrating.

Other than that, the only other lesson, don’t friggen drive if you have been drinking more than a “little”. You don’t even have to feel a buzz in order to have your motor skills compromized, and as those commercials point out, buzzed driving is drunk driving. I know this sounds preachy, but it just isn’t worth it. Get a cab or something. A lifetime of getting cabs is cheaper than getting a DUI.

I’m 21 and am not the typical college drinker. I like drinking for quality not quantity, and typically just grab a six pack and bring it back to my room. Sometimes I wish I could drink like a lot of students at PSU, but from personal experiences, it’s really something I can live without. I’ve only been drunk a handful of times (actually all when I was underage), and those few times, I really didn’t enjoy the feeling of being wasted. I felt sick, dizzy, which far outweighed the “fun” of a lack of motor control and inhibitions, and the giggles. I’ve never felt the need to get plastered to go and see a concert or go to a game, because I actually enjoy remembering and having fun at the game or a performance instead of feeling sick or blacking out.

The “let’s blackout every weekend” attitude really pisses me off, because it’s left up to your friends to take care of you after you can’t handle yourself anymore. This year I was stuck in a supplemental dorm room (aka a lounge with beds), and the first weekend, the asshole of the roommates decided 16 shots of cheap vodka was a good idea. He had to have some of us and two of our friends from upstairs help him get up the two flights of stairs to our 2nd floor room. Then the two girls from upstairs spent half the night comforting him as he threw up in our sink and in our kitchen for an hour, and then were nice enough to clean it up. I start to get sick being around someone vomiting, even without drinking, so as soon as he started puking, I had to get out of there and walked around UPark for a few hours in the middle of the night. Not a great night for me (especially because the next day was a noon kick-off for football).