There was a time when proving yourself or fitting in simply meant getting the right clothes and having a bad attitude but fashion does not last long and what is in today could be called vintage tomorrow. Nowadays the new trends have changed and what we used to call a trend such as fashion is gradually falling behind as something harder to stop becomes the new way to make yourself feel like you are fitting in. These days you don’t just get into a click and immediately fit in, you have to get in, fit in and make sure you maintain that position at all costs…no matter what the costs. Keeping up with the Jones’ is something most students in first year will do just about anything to do and keep, even to the detriment of their academics and sometimes even their lives. This trend is one that is taking over slowly but surely, this is a trend that is very much alive in most if not all universities, this trend is alcohol abuse.

There are a few students who choose not to even venture into the scary woods of alcohol in the fear of getting lost in there forever but then you find those who choose to explore, live a little and experiment since first year is all about experimenting in order to gain experience. Most students in first year are on the verge of being alcoholics and this is indicative in the way they party, their dependency on alcohol and their conduct once they have consumed too much alcohol. There are students who start partying from as early as Wednesday with the full intention of skipping lectures for the rest of the week since they know it will be pretty hard to get up for lectures if they have hangovers. Rhodes University is infamous for being the ‘drinking capital’ and even though many campaigns, such as getting societies to stop giving free alcohol, have been implemented by the school to try and curb the amount of alcohol consumed by students there are still those who drink too much alcohol and it has become a norm to forget what happened on Friday night.

Friday nights are usually packed with countless students drinking and ‘having fun’ as they call it, not realising that some of them are pretty close to going over the edge and depending solely on alcohol to have fun. No matter how sick they get, they still keep drinking and despite the effects of drinking, they still carry on in order to fit in or prove to others that they can have as many drinks as possible without getting drunk. The boys cheer each other on and laugh at each others actions when they are drunk while the girls just do it for the fun of it or to have a better time because they feel that when they are drunk they have more fun. Some students even take it to the extreme by drinking in private spaces; they drink in the comfort of their rooms in order to motivate themselves to study or to calm themselves down just before a test or an exam. These types of students are so immune to alcohol that they do not even get drunk; instead alcohol has become like a drug to them and has a calming effect as opposed to an energising effect.

As a first year coming from protective homes, first years generally get overwhelmed by the freedom they get furthermore they do not know anyone so they do just about anything to prove themselves and fit in, this is also fuelled further by peer pressure. Alcohol is a substance that should be consumed in small quantities and not drank in excess and even though your first drink might be a memorable experience (sometimes not memorable because of you forget everything), the drink after that might be the drink that could make you one step closer to being an alcoholic. Drink responsibly.