Pre-Game Drinking in the Journey to Higher Education

Pre-gaming refers to college students (and more particularly, my fellow Buckeye peers) who drink gratuitously prior to a huge athletic event, usually a football game. I'm using this as the introduction to a whole world of thought, my thought. I figured, hey if my friends are going to go and party to the sounds of their own horns, why not pre-game for my own little party? So here I am sounding off on the importance of celebrating an event that hasn't even taken place yet (at least not completely).

Really though, I've been in college for three years (and counting now) and having been in a variety of settings and situations, realizing the importance that taking the journey to the place called "higher education" has had on parents and their kids, and just always hearing the hoopla about how college is somehow supposed to be a landmark in everybody's life, I felt I had to express my thoughts and experiences.

I've come to realize that college itself is in many ways incredibly important and unimportant all at once. The word itself evokes a variety of thoughts and opinions, and people almost immediately have an established viewpoint about it, whether they have had college education or not. College itself is nothing more than a way to attain higher ground in the way a person thinks--its original purpose was to increase the capacity of an individual's range of thought, a training ground for mental gymnastics. In the modern world, though, it has become a necessary proving ground for worth. Not that this is totally wrong or deviant, but society (American society, seemingly) seems to place worth solely on tangible accomplishment, harbored many times from the college setting. It's all overrated to me.

But...college is a place of new experiences, new challenges. It presents many with the chance to spread their wings, to grow into their skin, or in many cases, look at themselves and decide that they were not what they perceived themselves or were perceived by others to be. In my case, I've spread a little and grown a little, but more than anything I've stayed true to myself, because college is the type of forum that can influence a young kid to go in not-so-pleasant directions. You have to have some integrity to withstand the forces that pull you.

Personally, as far as college has been concerned, I never really worried too much about the experience itself or how I would do. My biggest concern really dealt with my indecisiveness regarding my college choices. Going to a university and "being successful" and all of that noise was always something that seemed cliche, even though it happens like that in many, many cases. I just never put the pressure on myself to make myself think that college was going to be a big deal--in reality, it isn't. It almost seems that college is just the hoopla over where you'll spend the next 4-5 of your life after high school. After that, it's all about execution of tasks. But I guess that's why there so much to be made of the whole university thing anyway (other than the room & board that continues to further impoverish me each year--damn you, state taxes!!!) I suppose the new surroundings are a learning tool, something to help assist your maturation, so I can't really down the whole talk and concern of higher education, can I?