Right now, I'm sitting in a Lecture Room in Sanford Building and outside of the classroom, adults are drinking and eating pizza while watching Obama give a speech about something or other. As I passed by the adults who were holding bottles of beer, I realized that I didn't feel anxious the way I usually do around people who are drinking. Even if my fellow college students were of age, I still feel uneasy watching them drink because I fear their uninhibited personalities. How come I don't fear adults when they're drinking?
I realized that I think it's because adults are able to control how much they drink, and they're drinking for social reasons rather than for the clear objective of getting drunk so that you can forget about some of your problems for a few hours. For college students, freshman especially, we don't have a grasp on our tolerance, and being Duke students especially, we think we know everything and that we are good at... just about everything. So when college students drink, they drink to their utmost capacity and I think I fear people's behavior when they completely let themselves go.
When adults drink, I think I unconsciously assume that adults are in control of themselves regardless of whether they are or not, and so I don't feel as anxious about when adults drink. As I hear the clatter of glass bottles hit the bottom of the recycling bin, I don't feel uneasy about who consumed how much and who's acting completely retarded even though many of the adults outside have very impaired judgment.
