Dear readers,
How is uni treating you? Has your new phase of life been overwhelming? Scary? Challenging? Fun? You name your feelings! Being a university student isn’t just about the academic life, the social aspect of it is also a major deal. Which leads me to my next question: have you been going out? What I mean by going out is, have you been going clubbing? Relieving all the crazy antics of freshers; partying like a fanatic!
Cheers to the partygoers, like me! The kind of rush you feel when you go out is amazing. It’s even more incredible when the fresher’s mood is still going strong hence ‘often a night out with friends’.
Alternatively, frequent nights out could be your defence mechanism against uni stress. I remember in my first year, during the first semester I use to go out often and whenever asked why I always want to go out have a simple replied “getting away from uni work/ stress”. I’m not the type that drinks a lot to drown the sorrows/stress away, the only coping mechanism I had was dancing! Whenever I danced, I felt like I didn’t have a pile of work waiting for me in my flat, no exams I needed to revise for, no early morning lecture cause it’s Friday night!
Which leads me to the main purpose of this post. Going out having the best time of your life is a good thing to do, however, you need to remember that excessive fun can be sometimes harmful (don’t be like Gollum).
Having ‘pre-drink’ sessions are normal when planning a night out but, you can start taking too much advantage of ‘night out’ (hard to believe right?) by consuming too much alcohol. Are you drinking until you can’t even stand without support from one or more people? If this is happening every time, it might be to drown sorrow! Or to get away from uni stress! Whatever it may be, there is a more effective approach you could consider. Every uni should have a wellbeing centre that you can go to, to discuss: emotional, physical, mental and uni issues. Consuming high intake of alcohol doesn’t solve any of the problems you have, alcohol is a short-term measure (just for one night) however, getting help from the student wellbeing centre will not only solve your issues, but they will also teach you approaches you could use whenever you have any other issues.
When out at clubs, house parties, or events be careful of what you take. You might meet random strangers in clubs and that will offer you some weird drink or they might claim that what they are offering you is major deal, how about you have a taste of it! DO NOT TAKE IT!!!!! First, you don’t know them! They could have drugged the drink! You don’t even know where they get it from! You don’t know the intention behind offering you the drink!
If a stranger offer to buy you a drink, make sure the drink is made in front of you (you see how the bartender is making it). Having a drink in clubs can also be sometimes dangerous, especially when the diameter of the cup is large. You might be dancing with your drinks in your hand and someone might drug it without you being aware.
Uni social life is fun!!! But you must remember anything that has an advantages, also have disadvantages.
C: To my proof-readers