Is it possible for a student to have an alcohol free life?!

This question keeps running through my pounding head as I sit here feeling half alive and attempting to type with alcohol shakes… Now I sound like an alcoholic, but no, I’m just a student. Having just come back to life in halls after the Easter break I’ve only just realised how a student’s social life unconsciously revolves around drink. Whether it’s a big night out, going for a catch up or even a movie night accompanied with a glass of wine of two.

First day back we all went to the pub for a welcome back/catch up pint; obviously everyone had the same idea as it was packed with students. Two days later; a drink at the student union to celebrate one exam down. That same night was the first night out since being back so the drinks continued. The day after that – today – about to go for a drink in a pub garden seeing as the sun has made an appearance. Promised myself it will only be an orange juice though, the thought of alcohol after last night is not appealing… This weekend is the night every student looks forward to – yet another ‘Carnage’. I don’t even want to think of the money I’ve spent on alcohol in the last week and how my liver is feeling!

Literally every event targeted at students revolves around drink and going out. Since freshers week it hasn’t stopped, it almost feels like a long holiday (at first I compared it to my summer in Malia, without the weather, oh and work inbetween). Imagine not being able to join in those endless rounds of ‘ring of fire’ – downing your glass of water might not leave such a disgusting taste, but it won’t have the same effect – or getting so tried towards the end of a night when all of your friends are still on a high. From personal experience, a night sober surrounded by drunk people just isn’t the same! But then there are obviously the positives – no hangover, no humiliation when walking past a drunken encounter the next day, no regret when looking at your drunken texts, no mystery injuries from where you don’t remember falling over in your heels and no leftover taste of alcohol.

I know not every student is the stereotypical party goer, hence two of my four flatmates never going out, I’m almost envious of them not giving in to the clubs right outside our door. Peer pressure and will power comes down to it! Personally I find saying ‘no’ so difficult when the proposition of ‘a few drinks’ comes up. I’d love to know if any student could live an alcohol free university life…