I have a discussion section that begins each week with the TA asking, 'So, who went out last night'? He's not asking, 'Who got drunk last night'? but that's what I hear, and I think everyone else hears it too. I never respond to the question.
I can remember being hung over Friday mornings, and I know there was a time or two when I was hung over Tuesday morning, but I never joked about it or mentioned it in class. I guess I should've, because apparently it's funny.
Nearly everyone in discussion section laughs at the mention of drinking, while I just politely smile and think for a moment. I've been thinking about drinking a lot this year, and this year isn't much different than any other.
Every morning I get up, go to the kitchen and add another number to the tally. We've got a chart up on the refrigerator advertising 'The Sobriety Streak,' and this morning I taped up a little card reading '37.'
Last year I went almost the entire first semester without a drink, and no one seemed to notice. I didn't feel like drinking, so I didn't, and aside from a few of my roommates, no one hassled me at all.
So now my roommate and I have this over-publicized sobriety streak going, and everyone is trying to get us to drink. It's a big deal to people, and some even seem offended if I go to a party or a restaurant and I don't drink.
I've been saying that the streak will end in mid-October, and my roommate has said he's going until Halloween, but now I foresee this going a lot longer for me. To me, it's become a sort of social resistance, and as long as I'm bothered by the drinking culture, I'll be staying out of it.
I don't have a problem with drinking, but I've gotten pretty annoyed by how drinking is viewed by students. I don't think it's cool, and I don't think it's something to brag about in discussion section.
Sometimes I walk down State Street sober at bar time and feel embarrassed to be associated with UW-Madison. Or I'll see an ambulance on Friday night and think maybe one of the kids from the discussion section got alcohol poisoning. And sometimes for a moment I hope so.
I don't wish ill will on anyone, but at times I have to think people have it coming. And at times I've thought I might have had it coming too, but I don't think I can drink that much anymore. I just don't value the rewards.
I've been looking at things from a step back lately, and everything seems a lot different. Everyone seems a lot younger, and everyone seems dumber. I don't know where I fall, but I don't care. I'm just doing my own thing.
I came to Madison for a lot of reasons, none being that I could get drunk every weekend here. I wanted to do a lot of things, and as time runs out, many remain undone, but I'm trying to get to them. And when I do I won't be mentioning it in discussion, because who there would care?
andrewmiller@students.wisc.edu
