Mike Miezejeski

Contributing Writer, Print Journalism

Before coming to Keene State College, this New Hampshire sophomore, now 20, had never had a sip of alcohol in his life. When he arrived at KSC, he quickly realized that mostly all of his fellow students were consistently drunk on the weekends and even the weekdays. He and a few friends who did not drink would hang out on the weekends when everyone else in his dorm would drink. About a month-and-a-half into the school year, he decided to try a drink. “At Keene State College it’s what basically everyone does every single weekend. There was literally four other people that didn’t drink on my floor freshman year,” he said.

His first night of drinking was the week before Halloween. He told his friends that he finally wanted to get drunk. They made him rum mixed with Pepsi and they played drinking games in his neighbor’s room. Now in his second year of college, the student drinks at least two to three times per week, upwards of four times per week depending on his schedule. He said he goes out to parties every weekend and that he only used to drink hard alcohol but now spends 20 dollars per week on a 30 rack of beer, mainly Bud Light. He said he gets his alcohol from his friends at the college, some are of-age and others use a fake ID. He tips the students who use the fakes with the change left over from the purchase. In regards to drugs, the only time this student has smoked marijuana was when he was quite drunk. “It was handed to me and my brain said sure why not,” he said.

When asked how he felt, he said he does not remember anything besides getting dizzy and falling asleep.

The student then explained the process most students participate in before a night of drinking.  He said, “You drink in the dorms, then you go out to parties, you do that every weekend because it’s just the thing to do, it’s mostly social. Mostly on the nights that I drink I am pretty good about getting home safely, mostly I just get sick. Very sick and it gets gross.”

At parties this student said he mostly people watches to see what people do when they are drunk. Sometimes he likes to play drinking games.