When I was a senior in high school, I had a teacher tell me that college changes people until they become unrecognizable. It wasn't just the physical change where we dyed our hair and did a 180 degree shift in our personalities; it was an emotional change. The first time I heard this, I made a promise to never change myself. And I didn't. Well, not at first. My excuse was that a rebel was in the making all along.

I was a drinking connoisseur. If you had it, I drank it.

At first, I believed that I was just being a typical college student. Enjoying the moment, blurring the lines (Thanks, Robin Thicke, for horrifyingly premeditating every college girl's nightmares). If you're looking for every excuse to drink, you should probably realize that the first step to alcoholism is not having control. This includes making up excuses. Finished a paper? Time to celebrate.

You know you've got a problem when you would walk 2 miles away to find someone that could buy the drinks for you. When really, you could've just stayed in. By the time, you've earned your college nickname, it's too late. You're busy soaking in the fame of merely being a notorious college student, and not an alcoholic.

So when it came time for the enforced Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), I was shocked and kind of offended. The entire time you're committing to these group sessions, you're sitting in a room with other college students looking to party. Sounds like the perfect hangout spot, doesn't it?

The second problem with it is the administrators who are running it. I remember the program I was in worked under the idea that you probably just didn't have enoughJesus in your life. I'm a Deist so when this happened it really threw me under the rug.

Deism is the belief that there is a higher being or creator (not necessarily being God) who has stepped back from the world due to its complexities.

So imagine how awkward it must have been to think I was supposed to be getting help, but discover I was learning about how much of a sinner I really had become.

It sucked. But later on, I turned myself around and transferred into a Liberal Arts university. Not everyone is going to try to convert you or tell you what you think is wrong, but there are people who will try. That's with any kind of belief; you want people to believe in the things that you strongly hold near and dear to your heart.

It's interesting to see how similar the beginning stages of college resemble the development of an alcohol problem. In a sense, we abuse alcohol with one objective: to numb ourselves from reality.

It doesn't mean we can't enjoy it or develop a peculiar taste for those hops.