From the Archives

I was going through some of my old Gmail's and came across the paper I had to write to Mike "Webcam" Schryer for when I got caught drinking in the dorms freshmen year. It looks like I didn't want to indite any of my friends by naming them. It's a bit of a throwback to freshmen year but I really like the last paragraph.

My Alcohol Experience

The weekend of January 24^th was one of the defining weekends of this semester, so far at least. I made some bad decisions and as a result faced punishments. But that same weekend I made new friends and got closer to people I had barely known. Almost a month later looking back on that weekend, the amount I regret is far smaller then the amount I am glad I experienced.

The weekend started out like any other weekend. I was done with class at 11:30 on Friday and had no plans for the weekend. This left me with 2 and a half days to screw around, and after a hard week that was exactly what I planned to do. My neighbor told me that he was having some high school girls up for Friday night and we were supposed to show them a good time. So my neighbor, his friends, his roommate and I start drinking in dorms early that evening before we headed out to a fraternity. On the way we ran into one of my friends and convinced him to join us. It was a great night, just hanging out and drinking free beer paid for by frat boys. We came back all better friends then when we had left. It was late and I decided to retire back to my room to go to bed after I realized that a hookup chance was remote. I was in my room and decided to clean up a little before I went bed. So I went to the bathroom to empty out a nearly full beer that had been in my room. As I went into the bathroom I was caught by a DPS officer and was cited. Because of my fascination with the police show COPS I managed to get myself out of a MIP.

The next day was spent lounging around the dorms until around 5 PM when I got a call from one of my friends who I am living with next year. He told me that most of my future roommates were going out and invited me to come with him. He also had a girl from home up for the weekend. We planned on going to a house party but on the way we decided to stop by West Quad to pick up some people. We went to a room and I saw two people I had classes with last semester. I hadn’t really talked to them much, but I started to, and I now know them much better. I also met the owner of the room, who I now see quite a bit and hadn’t known before this night. We had only been in the room for a few minutes when we heard a knock on the door, and outside was an RA and a DPS officer. So for the second time in less then 24 hours I surrendered my Mcard to a DPS officer’s notebook. So with that incident behind us, we went out to a party down the street. Although I didn’t know whose house it was, I saw so many people that I knew there, I could have sworn it was my own party. I saw people from my calculus math group from the previous term and people that I hadn’t seen in months. It was one of the best parties I have been to. My friend and I then decided to head down the street to another party, and realized that the party we were going to was at the house that we had leased for next year. We went inside and actually got to meet the people that were currently living in the house. I was really cool to see our house and the people that reside there. As the party was winding down, we left and went to the BOX house where we know the people that live there. They were having a few people over and we hung out there and eventually passed out there. Then next morning we woke up and had to take the long walk back to Markley. As we taking our walk of shame we discussed all the events of the previous night, and how much fun we had. The write up by DPS was only a small negative to the great night just happened.

Of course the inevitable happened, I receive a letter and an e-mail about my two run-ins with DPS. I figured it would be a small price to pay for the great weekend I had just had. I wasn’t quite sure the sort of trouble I would be in for two write ups in less then 24 hours, but I didn’t think it would be good. I showed up for the meeting and was punished in the manner that I was expected. I had been told that I would probably have to do an online course and maybe make a poster. I wasn’t to keen on the poster idea and was relieved when I found out that I only had to do a two page paper and an online course.

I took the course and thought that it was a good course on alcohol awareness. I found I learned things about alcohol that I didn’t know, or I thought were only myth. Although the program was educational it didn’t make me feel like what I had done was wrong. I had already known most of the facts that they threw at me and so I didn’t have too much trouble taking the test to pass the course. It seemed like a bit of a waste of time, but if it was necessary to get this over with I was willing to do it.

That left only this paper, which is great because it gave me a chance to reflect on the events, and to look at them from a hindsight perspective. I was able to see how these write ups affected my actions and behaviors. What I realized is that these experiences really haven’t changed behavior. I am smarter when I drink in the dorms, but I still drink just as frequently. Now when I drink I am always sure my door in closed and that there aren’t DPS officers in the hallway when I am outside my room with alcohol. These write ups showed that there are consequences for my actions but the consequences are sometimes worth the rewards. The rewards of going out and making friends are in my opinion what college is all about. I could stay in every night and never drink, but I can barely imagine what my college experience would be like without going out to parties and meeting new people. In the words of the great South Park character Chef “There is a time and a place for everything, it's called college.”