Back in high school, we had alumni telling us about their personal experiences with parties and drugs in college—he majority just warned us to stay away from the drug and alcohol scenes in college for fear of being punished and having our scholarships revoked. I have only drunk a few times at family gatherings—I was never really a drinker. As for drugs, I would often see how shaky, paranoid, and unalert people were made by the so-called harmless drug of marijuana. I’d hear about certain kids offering special discounts and being able to rack up $40 in just four hours. I would just roll my eyes and promise myself never to try it out in college.

A year later, I’ve kept that promise nice and strong. My roommates were respectful about it, and didn’t seem too involved in the drug and alcohol scene themselves.  Nonetheless, sometimes it seemed to me like just about everyone else would smoke a blunt or go to Saturday night outings to drink their semester stress away. I would hear about it and smell the smoke on the corner of 6th avenue which caused me to assume that only 10% of people are completely sober here.

I actually took a class called Drugs and Kids last semester, and in it the argument of whether or not to legalize marijuana came up and the teacher proposed a poll. She first asked who thinks it should be legalized, and the majority of the class raised their hand—although some people didn’t vote at all. She let those who raised their hand explain their reasoning and then proceeded to ask those who didn’t think it should be legalized. I raised my hand more so in a shaky way, because I only agreed to an extent. Marijuana policies do create extreme numbers in arrest (especially for African Americans), overpopulated jails and diminishes every single tax benefit. But, I made it clear to the class that I felt mixed about the situation because of my experience in seeing how screwed up my high school peers were. I even mentioned how I never tried it so I wouldn’t know the beautiful high of it and one of the students just turned around: “Really?” Yes, really.

I remember feeling quite embarrassed by the dead silence that filled the room. I wondered if there were even kids who were scared to raise their hands. But then again, why should I feel ashamed? In college, or in life in general, abiding by the law is seen as a joke and breaking it is the trend. The whole conversation was one big replica of high school, something I dreaded. I never went to any parties or did any drugs during my freshman year. Though, I did have a nice alcoholic experience with family after the spring semester. Not everyone in college is partying, drinking, or doing drugs. And even if they are, I shouldn’t put those who party in the same category as those who do drugs or drink because that is simply not the case. I assumed this in the beginning because I didn’t know many people and I hadn’t found my niche. If you’re like me, a traditional person who doesn’t want to see people blacked out and prefers laid out and rather cheap, safer environments, then you will find people like me eventually. I wouldn’t consider myself an antisocial person—trust me, I’m not—but just like Alessia Cara, I don’t do parties and I feel great about it.

Image Credit: https://studybreaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/college-party.jpg

By: Tiana B.

Tiana is a sophomore at NYU concentrating on journalism and creative writing. She seeks to display the representation of African Americans and Latinos by providing her own experiences and illuminating marginalized issues in her own writing. When she’s free from her stressful college life, she likes to listen to rap music, binge watch on anime, splurge on Kmart deals, and cook her Hispanic cuisines. Tiana also runs another blog called True T which also highlights not only her personal experiences, but her genuine and unfiltered opinions on today’s matters.

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