I was talking to my old friend Nick last night, about a myriad of things (we haven’t talked in a while), one of which was a bunch of people he knew (I wouldn’t go so far as to call them all his “friends”) and how miserably they failed at college, if they even went to college.
The girl who married her boyfriend so she could live with him on a military base. The guys who dropped out of community college and plan to work in retail for the rest of their lives. The guys and girls who did nothing but drink and party at college, fail their simplistic 101 courses, and now they’re home, perhaps going to community college, and still doing nothing but drinking.
I have to wonder, of course, how these people managed to get to college in the first place. When I was a graduating senior, I (like most people) heard stories of all the losers who flunked out of their college, and were now back home wasting away their lives. Knowing that, how can anybody actually think that it won’t happen to them? I know of a really nice guy who suddenly moved out, dumped his very nice girlfriend, picked up smoking, and moved in with some skank. This was a nice, smart guy that everybody liked. How does that sort of thing happen? It’s not as though moving on to college is a difficult prospect. Things change, sure, but it’s not as though balancing school, a job (if you have one) and a significant other (if you have one) is the hardest thing in the world.
You’d expect better. After all, these people have to be somewhat intelligent to even be accepted to college, right? It’s not as though they can be complete drunkards, and yet college does something—arouses the rebellious spirit, perhaps— and turns nice kids into complete fuckwits. And partying is expected. I’ve got stupid little freshmen asking me if I’m partying yet. And it does happen here at this tiny little Franciscan college, too: I’ve made friends that booze it up (right, Jess?); my old friend Colin invited me to a kegger the other day. Needless to say, I politely declined. What I wanted to say was “What do I look like? A complete retard?”
I’m not saying that all drinking is bad. I’ve had beers, I’ve had wine, but all in safe amounts, and all very rarely. I don’t go to keggers, I don’t do shots of Jaeger on the weekends, and I don’t get smashed.
Why? Because it’s fucking dumb, that’s why.