By Amie Dahnke
"Dude, last night was nuts."
"Oh my gosh, I know, right? I can't believe you actually made it to class today."
"Dude, I know. At least I don't look like her; I think she's still drunk."
Ah yes, Friday classes are always my favorite to attend. After Thirsty Thursdays at the T-Room, most Friday classrooms are stifling by mid-morning with the stench of unshowered college students and last night's bar room. It more or less grosses me out.
It disgusts me mainly because I'm not a Thirsty Thursday participant. Rather than spend my Friday mornings hungover and washing aspirin down with my coffee, I much prefer slipping into my comfy running shoes and heading out for a refreshing four-mile run in the early morning sun and sometimes frigid temperature.
Am I sad that I miss out on the college ritual of smoky bars, call shots, beer bongs and small-college gossip (Like So-and-So is pregnant and What's-His-Face got caught with drugs, again)? No, I'm not sad - at all. And here's why:
According to the American Heart Association, "excessive drinking of alcohol can lead to stroke and other serious heart health problems."
And heart disease, in case you didn't by freak chance know, is the nation's leading cause of death, and has been for the past 80 years (Check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site for the hard facts).
So, like I said before, missing out on Thirsty Thursdays and the binge-drinking college scene doesn't bother me a bit because I actually like my heart. I'm not saying, of course, that my fellow peers dislike their hearts. Better said, I am unsure whether my classmates are aware of the risks they are running by partaking in Thirsty Thursdays, Friday night's Purple Pride and Saturday night's party scene.
By binge-drinking, people my age (18 to 25) are putting themselves at a higher risk of contracting heart disease later in life. Not only do binge drinkers of my age group face more health risks than moderate drinkers and those who start drinking later, the risk is independent of total alcohol consumed over a lifetime. That's scary.
What scares me the most about that finding is that the majority of people my age - me included - rarely even think about heart disease (Trust me, I asked around campus and looked like a fool for doing so). The risk of having cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) or cardiac arrhythmia just doesn't cross our minds ("They're fat, old people diseases" was the common, and albeit negligent, response I got from my peers).
Rather, our brains hone in more on taking away the edge of the stressful things in our lives - exams, research papers, the occasional freak health scare (like ovarian cyst ruptures) and the pressures of being almost-sorta grown up - away by knocking back four or five drinks in one night.
And doing so feels good - for now. Yes, waking up the next morning after a heavy-duty night of reconnecting with our Irish ancestors or making friendly with the absinthe fairy definitely calls for moaning, groaning and occasional dry heaving (hey, we've all been there), but I'm figuring it is exponentially better than waking up in 15 or 20 years with shortened breath, a mountainous dosage of daily medications, and the inability to exercise for long periods of time.
Not being able to run in my future, adult life? Now that's a scary thought. Not being able to walk? Now that's inconceivable.
So what to do? Obviously, I can't go around and tell my classmates to stop partaking in Thirsty Thursdays because I'd:
A. Be laughed at;
B. End up with beer thrown on me;
C. Have to subject myself to smoky bars and underage, fake ID-bearing peers (the annoying ones who are giddily chugging their third Long Island Iced Teas).
I'm definitely not up for any of that. However, I do think it is worth educating my peers and my social world that the choices we make today as 20-somethings really do affect our futures. Instead of drinking our stresses away three or four times a week or trying to get with that one amazingly gorgeous guy or girl - you know, the one who makes your three-hour night class worth attending - by drinking one's self silly, we need to establish healthier outlets.
De-stress by painting your idea of a poem's meaning, laughing with friends while watching Adrian Brody's first movie ever or engaging in retail therapy at Target. Attract that gorgeous guy or girl by name-dropping your favorite band or playing a game of paper-football at the nearest non-Starbucks coffee house.
Do anything but drink yourselves into cardiac arrest. Your heart will thank you and so will I. Especially on Fridays.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site is www.cdc.gov/alcohol.
Amie Dahnke is a senior English and ?communication major
