College is hard. Considering most of you who will read this are college students, I am preaching to the choir, right? Nonetheless, I will say it again, college is hard. These four years have such an impact on our future, so how could they not be incredibly difficult?
However, it is not always about the classroom or the lab. Sure, those are the most important parts of college.
Doing well in those areas is the reason we are here in the first place and for a lot of people, those areas are the easiest part of college. For many, the social aspect of college is the biggest challenge they will face.
Some would shrug this off as not a problem, because you are not in college to make friends, you are here to prepare for a career.
However, having fun and making memories is just as important as getting good grades. For many, the latter seems impossible. They do not know how to make friends with whom they can make memories. For these people, I have an answer: alcohol.
Making friends has not always been an easy task for me. For the majority of my life I have been extremely introverted and shy. To make matters worse, society often separates us into groups based on arbitrary characteristics. An example of this would be Greek life. Most people have the idea that those who are Greek will only befriend others who are Greek, and vice versa. The New York Times says, society seeks to divide, so we must seek to overcome the divides. As I mentioned earlier, the way to do this is with alcohol.
When you are at the bar, societal divides do not matter. You might notice them at first, but after each drink you will lower your guard and see every individual as a potential friend.
People that you would normally never talk to suddenly become involved in your conversation. You are swapping stories, sharing laughs and having a fun time. You are not concerned with your shyness, or the fact that you would normally not be conversing with these people. A few drinks took the edge off, it opened your mind and showed you everyone is just like you: seeking friendship and a good time.
Everyone is different. It makes sense that with socializing comes a certain anxiety. According to CNN, we see the uniqueness of every group and wonder how we will ever fit in with these people. However, the answer is to try to make yourself available.
This is why I believe alcohol is the perfect social lubricant. Imagine, if you will, a machine that operates with cogs and gears.Without proper lubrication, the machine will jam and will not function properly. We are the gears and life is the machine.
We have to find our social lubricant to ease our anxiety, to take the edge off. Alcohol is one possibility, but there are many others as well. Find what works for you, put yourself out there, and make college an experience you will never forget.
