Blame it on the Goose

One of the best things about living in a college town is the fact that the town caters to you. From the endless selection of restaurants to the great nightlife, it’s every student’s heaven.  On top of that, the college itself caters to you. There are an infinite amount of student services and student run organizations that can help with any and every need. The one that immediately caught my interest as a freshman at A&M was CARPOOL, which provides a “free, safe, and fun nonjudgmental ride home” to people whether they are a student or not, and sober or not. Amazingly they are nonprofit, and seeing as they’ve provided 180,772 rides so far, I’d say they are onto something good. Check them out! http://carpool.tamu.edu/

While I find CARPOOL an amazing idea that serves a great purpose, I also feel that it’s an enabler. This service makes it acceptable for someone to become completely intoxicated because they know they will be able to find a way home and not risk driving under the influence and wrecking or getting a ticket. I’m extremely grateful for the lives CARPOOL has most likely saved thus far, but I feel if it didn’t exist, people might be less inclined to party as hard. Students may decide to perhaps stay in and party, where they are much less likely to find trouble. Like many other towns, College Station also has a few taxi services which could also provide safe rides home to people in inebriated states; they’d have to pay the taxi fee which is not a cheap habit. CARPOOL provides free rides, which is great for a student’s budget, but not so great for control the alcohol scene. Granted, one does not have to be intoxicated to use their services, but I’m sure the majority of their customers are not completely sober. 

CARPOOL is an amazing service that keeps the city and its occupants safer, yet under ideal circumstances we wouldn’t need such a service. But living in the world we do today, I’m sure glad we have it.

Happy Hour

As any college student knows, the social scene is a big deal in college. Bars, dance clubs, and areas like our very own Northgate are packed until the early hours of the morning. Lots of times the partying doesn’t stop even then. And the majority of the time, alcohol is involved.  While it’s everyone’s personal choice whether to partake in drinking or not, there tends to be an expectation to drink. A typical night out begins with “pre-gaming” so by the time it’s time to hit the bars most people are significantly buzzed at the least. The drinking continues until the end of the night (or morning) when everyone must figure out how to get to their respectable destinations after a liquid filled evening. Many students are familiar with this situation, yet I doubt many have taken the time to consider just how big and wide-spread alcohol really has become.

                I’m currently a junior at Texas A&M majoring in Nutritional Sciences with a minor in Psychology. I’m also a member of the Greek community, so I feel I have a fairly good grasp on this topic. I’m curious to really look into this issue and the impact on the community and businesses here locally, as well as impacts on the rest of the world.

                As  I already stated, I feel that drinking is a personal choice. Yet I wish there was less of a stigma on refusing a beverage. Some people say they aren’t fun until they “loosen” up, and dancing sober is usually completely out of the question. With alcohol so readily available, its impact is spreading. For example: alcohol provides business with steady revenue, it brings money to a city through minor citations (very common in college towns), and can also seal business deals after a successful wining and dining of a client. How did alcohol, a toxin to our body in all technicalities, become so interwoven in our lives? How would it affect businesses if students didn't drink? How would the dynamics of "going out" or interaction between people change if no alcohol was involved and people were sober all the time? How did alcohol come to stand for what it means today? This blog will explore such aspects of alcohol, and its growing effects.