Imagine this, you are going out on Thursday with your friends to de-stress from the week before. You continuously sip/chug on your beverage, one after another. Disregarding your health and responsibility for your actions. Eventually, you stumble your way to your bed at 3 am- setting your alarm for your 8 am class. You wake up with a total body feeling of "UGH", your best friend arrives to take you to class. Sitting in class, you feel a little queasy… then you run to the bathroom to expel the regrets of the night before. You exit the stall to wash your hands to find your professor drying their hands looking at you with disappointment. You have to see them the rest of the semester with you both having the knowledge of that event.

Regretfully, I have to tell you that the story above happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Nothing more sobering than an embarrassing story that makes your stomach turn when you think about it. Now, most students begin drinking as an act of their new independence from parents or to cope with the extensive stresses of college life. Despite the freedom of drinking and loss of inhibitions for your words and actions, the toll that drinking has on your mental health is not worth it. Personally, I would lie in bed for days before being able to return back to normal due to being left in the depressive state.

Many people will even use drinking as an excuse for their bad actions. People turn into lovers, fighters, or anything in-between. Now, I am not here to tell you what to do with your life because I know many will ignore the risks of binge drinking for the sake of keeping up with the social requirements of being a college student (I do the same sometimes). However, I do advise you take into consideration what damages could occur from binge drinking. Is that beverage worth losing the respect of your peers and superiors?