If I could sink a half-cup for every time I’ve heard, “Geller, you don’t even hang out, bro,” there wouldn’t be any beer left on campus. When my friends tell me that I don’t “hang out,” they mean that I don’t spend as much time as they do in fraternity basements. As far as I’m concerned, I hang out plenty. Just because they won’t find me out more than once or twice a week does not mean that I don’t hang out. It just means that I don’t hang out as much as some other students. When they ask why this is, I wonder if they realize that maybe they hang out too much.
Everyone is different. I get that. Some people can stay out late four or five nights a week and still be involved in multiple clubs, exercise daily, never miss a class and maintain a 4.0 GPA. But most of us, including myself, are not those kinds of super humans. We all have different priorities, but I will never understand how playing pong and drinking every other day can be a priority for such a significant percentage of the Dartmouth student body and for college-aged kids in general. To make partying such a high priority, one must make sacrifices.
For students who spend every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and the occasional Thursday in fraternities late into the night, those sacrifices must be substantial. Very recently, I had a friend tell me he was considering dropping one of his classes because he loves pong and wants to get better by playing four nights a week. For him, this would only be possible with a two-course schedule and no classes on Tuesday or Thursday morning.
Let’s take a step back. Can we all agree that being good at pong is quite frankly one of the most useless skills a person could possibly have? Does anyone else feel the same way? When I express this sentiment to large groups of people, they look at me like I’m taking crazy pills. To me, it is ridiculous that some students won’t take 10As because they interfere with their pong schedules. Some of the best classes are only offered during the 10A time slot. Sadly, although I’d like to think that every Dartmouth student prioritizes grades and classes ahead of drinking, that is not always the case.
Even if someone can drink heavily four nights a week and still maintain strong grades, what about everything else? What about maintaining a balanced lifestyle? What about exercising, being healthy and feeling good? It never ceases to amaze me how some people treat their bodies so poorly by consuming so much alcohol and getting little exercise. Speaking of taking care of your body, what about sleep? I think it is safe to say most of us need sleep to function, and is it really worth being exhausted for a week just to go out that one extra night?
How about hobbies? There are limitless clubs and organizations on campus. Everyone has different interests and passions, whether it’s writing for The D, playing a sport, doing community service, participating in chess club or singing a capella. Unfortunately, these are often sacrificed in favor of drinking.
We cannot lose sight of why we are at Dartmouth. We are here to learn and to grow as people in order to become productive members of society. We come to Dartmouth because of all the opportunities that it offers and because of all the doors that a Dartmouth degree opens. We come to Dartmouth because, for the fifth straight year, U.S. News and World Report ranked Dartmouth number one in undergraduate teaching.
We don’t attend Dartmouth to raise our alcohol tolerance, gain 30 pounds and forget what exercising feels like. No — we are here because Dartmouth offers an unparalleled undergraduate experience. It baffles me that many people spend money on tuition for these incredible opportunities just to forego them in favor of drinking. Sure, this does not apply to the majority of students here, but I cannot understand why it applies to a decent percentage of the student body.
I’m not telling you that you can’t drink and have fun. But if pieces of this article apply to you, re-evaluate your priorities. Everybody has to grow up sometime, and maybe now is the time to start.
