When someone thinks of the state of Wisconsin a couple things come to mind; Packers, cheese, and of course beer. When someone thinks of college in Wisconsin they think of some of the biggest party schools in the nation. It is no wonder people think that Wisconsin college students have bad drinking habits, with events like Halloween on State Street and Mifflin Street Block Party that take place in Madison. Let’s take a more local view with the La Crosse area. La Crosse has events like Oktoberfest, Beer, Wine, and Cheese Festival, and the Kul Duel. It is no wonder other states think Wisconsin students drink in large quantities. When taking just Madison and La Crosse Wisconsin in to consideration there are a lot of opportunities to drink, drink large quantities.
When examining pop culture in terms of binge drinking in a college setting there are a lot of things that seem to make it ok to do. Take a look at movies over the years, with movies like Animal House, College, and America Pie Beta House. They all have scenes in them where college students take binge drinking to the extreme. Rapper Asher Roth’s writes about binge drinking in his song, I love College. With lyrics like “pass out at three, wake up at ten, go out to eat then do it again”, “So fill up my cup, let’s get f*ck up”, “Hold the beer bong, nothing wrong with some fun even, if we did get a little bit too drunk, Time isn't wasted when you're getting wasted”. These movies and songs make the youth think that when they get to college that is how they need to act to be cool or fit in. That binge drinking is an acceptable behavior.
This paper will present some facts about binge drinking behavior in college students along with some of the consequences of binge drinking. It will also give a personal experience about binge drinking in college. Binge drinking starts around the age of 13, and tends to become more extreme with age. It normally increases in young adults, ages 18 to 22. After young adulthood binge drinking behavior is likely to decrease. Binge drinking is four to five drinks in one sitting. Even with laws in every state not making it ok to drink before the age of 21, minors say it is easier than one would think, to get alcohol. High school and college students say,” they drink with one goal, which is to get drunk”. This is what the U.S Department of Alcohol and Drug said. In 2005 about 10.8 millions students in the age group of 12-20 reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days. Of the 10.8 million surveyed, 7.2 million were binge drinking and 2.3 million of them were heavy drinkers. 44 percent of students attending a four year college drinks at a binge drinking level or higher. Many college presidents say that binge drinking is the biggest problem that they have on their campus. Harvard School of Public Health did a study in 2000 about why students binge drink; and here are some of the responses, like stated early, the biggest reason is to get drunk, status associated with drinking, culture of alcohol consumption on campus, peer pressure, and academic stress.
The facts of binge drinking have been presented. Now the side effects of such drinking need to be examined. Students think that binge drinking is all about fun and having a good time, but they do not realize the negative effects it has on their body and school. Students that binge drink are 21 time more likely to miss class, fall behind in their classes, damaged property, have injuries, have unplanned sex, have unprotect sex, drive under the influence, and have trouble with campus police or the police in general. The biggest thing that binge drinking can do to the body is cause alcohol poisoning. Signs of alcohol poisoning are vomiting, temperature change from hot to cold, clammy palms, flush skin, and slowed breathing. When someone consumes a large amount of alcohol the brain is deprived of oxygen. It struggles to deal with an overdose of alcohol and lack of oxygen will eventually cause the brain to shut down the voluntary functions that regulates breathing and the heart rate. That is what is called a blackout. The information about the side effects of binge drinking was taken from the U.S Department of Health and Human Service of Alcohol and Drug.
An interview of a student at the University Wisconsin La Crosse, Matt Karbula, was conducted. Questions about his drinking habits were asked. In one weekend (Thursday-Saturday) how many drinks do you have? He said “about 20”. The next question was, why do you drink? “It leads to enjoyable times, and giving into the ways of the culture and atmosphere that college experience brings, I also like to play drinking games”. What do you drink? “Beer, I don’t like to drink hard alcohol”, he stated. Is it easy for you to get alcohol even though you are not of age (he is 20), and do you worry about getting in trouble? “Yes, it is easy for me to get alcohol and no, I don’t worry about getting in trouble with the law. I’m pretty responsible when it comes to my drinking”. The last question asked of him was do you have your drinking under control? He said “yes, I know my limits, so I know when it is quitting time for the night”.
After looking at all the information collected, I have decided to share some of my binge drinking habits. When I think of myself I do not consider myself a binge drinker. I consider myself an average Wisconsin college student. When I was a first year student I would go out every Thursday – Saturday and get drunk. Now that I’m in my third year I have clam down with my drinking. I will go out maybe two times a weekend, but it is not about to see how drunk I can get. When you are younger I think that you think you need to go out every night on the weekends to be cool and fit it. When I was younger it was just as easy for me to get alcohol that is now that I am of age. When I was underage I was not worried about getting in trouble with the law. I think my attitude change with drinking last year when I was on spring break in Panama City Beach. My second night there I got to the point of blacking out pretty early in the night. The next day was the roughest day of my drinking experiences. I could not keep food or water down no matter how much my body needed the nourishment. I was pale looking and experiencing hot and cold sweats. The group of guys I was with considered taking me hospital so I could get help for alcohol poisoning. I probably should have gone, but I started to show signs of getting better so I was not taken in.
Binge drinking is a serious thing if it is not understood, what it is and what it causes. I feel ever since that day down in Panama City Beach I have learned my lesson. I don’t go out with the goal of getting drunk, or to the point that I will throw up all over the place. I mean let’s face it that is not fun anyway so why would you want to get to that level.
Work Cited
SAMHSA. "Binge Drinking in Adolescents and College Students." Web. 08 May 2010.
"Binge Drinking on College Campuses." Dec. 2008. Web. 08 May 2010.
“FACT SHEET:BINGE DRINKING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES." Mar. 2000. Web. 08 May 2010.
“Binge Drinking in College."Grant Gysbers, Matt Karbula. Personal interview. 08 May 2010.
Asher Roth. "I Love College." Rec. 12 May 2009. Asleep in the Bread Aisle. Mike Caren, 2009. CD.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Paper coming together
Today I finally feel like I know really know where I going with my paper. The paper is going to have facts about binge drinking, then it is going to mainly high light all the consequences of drinking it has on your body and your life.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Research
My research on college students binge drinking is going well. I have found great informant on the internet and I have found some good stuff in a couple of books that I found in the library. I feel that alot of the imformant I found is stats.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Earth Day
Have we forgot what earth day is about as American's. When Earth Day started 40 years ago. It was not about making money. It is about us as American's helping saving this wonderful earth that we have here. Over the past years Earth day has also became about bussiness making money on this special day. As Leslie Kaufman from the New York Times stated; the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry. When the event started 40 years about, I dont think that is what the people had in mind.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ken Robinson-video
First of all I would like to say that I enjoyed listen to that video. Ken Robinson was a funny guy. It was just not him up there talking about the topic of school and creative. He made it fun and enjoyable to watch. I agree with him, that, we don’t let kids be more creative. Kid’s minds are so creative and we don’t give them the chance to showcase it. We are too busy telling them to put there imagine away, and take out your text books. Do get me wrong the core classes are very important. I thing that we need to give them more time to let their minds be free and be creative.
I always hated it when you had an English class and the teacher told you what you had to write about. I didn’t like how it limited me to what I could write about. So I would write the paper on the topic the teacher picked. I would do well on it. I feel if I could have picked what I wanted to write about it would have been better, because it would have had more meaningful to me. That is a case of school not letting me use my creative side when it comes to writing. I understand that sometime you need to tell the students what to write about. You don’t need to tell them every time though.
I always hated it when you had an English class and the teacher told you what you had to write about. I didn’t like how it limited me to what I could write about. So I would write the paper on the topic the teacher picked. I would do well on it. I feel if I could have picked what I wanted to write about it would have been better, because it would have had more meaningful to me. That is a case of school not letting me use my creative side when it comes to writing. I understand that sometime you need to tell the students what to write about. You don’t need to tell them every time though.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Free write 3-coaching
When I was a sophomore up through my senior year I got the great honor to help coach one of my hometown youth hockey teams. It was a bantam A team. Bantams are mostly 7th and 8th graders. Sometimes you will have 9th grader if they meet the age requirement and don’t want to play high school hockey. I coached the team with my old bantam coach, and my older cousin. It was a great opportune for me to learn a better understanding of the game. It also gave me a chance to give back to youth program that helped me develop as a player and as a person. The big thing it taught me was responsibly. I learned that I had an obligation to these kids, their parents, and the other coaches. They were all counting on me to be there for games and practice, at the same time you have give a hundred and ten percent for every one, just like the players. I also had to give up my weekends and two nights a week for the seasons. I had to learn how to manage my time better than I did before I started coaching. On the week days I balanced school, my hockey practice, homework, and coaching. On the weekends I balanced homework, coaching, having a social life, and an occasional game of my own to play in.
My junior year was the best and most fun I had coaching. We had a great group of players that wanted to learn and improve their game. We played all the bigger programs around the state. When we played those bigger programs we would beat them or at the very least compete with them. When I say we played bigger programs it is like a division 3 team playing a division 1 or 2 team. We were the division 3 team. That same year we made it to state for bantam 3A. We went into that weekend feeling good. All the teams that were there we had already beaten. So we thought we would be a shoe in to play in the championship game. As anyone can tell you, when it comes to playoffs anything can happen, and that is exactly what happened. Our first game we played a team we had beaten three times. We ended up losing that game by one. After that game we had a chat with the kids and told them not to get down. “We still have one more game today, so let’s go out and play the game we know we can play.” So they went out later that day and won. We went on to play the next day for 5th place. We won and took home a 5th place finish. Not what we wanted, but it is what we got along with a great learning experience.
My junior year was the best and most fun I had coaching. We had a great group of players that wanted to learn and improve their game. We played all the bigger programs around the state. When we played those bigger programs we would beat them or at the very least compete with them. When I say we played bigger programs it is like a division 3 team playing a division 1 or 2 team. We were the division 3 team. That same year we made it to state for bantam 3A. We went into that weekend feeling good. All the teams that were there we had already beaten. So we thought we would be a shoe in to play in the championship game. As anyone can tell you, when it comes to playoffs anything can happen, and that is exactly what happened. Our first game we played a team we had beaten three times. We ended up losing that game by one. After that game we had a chat with the kids and told them not to get down. “We still have one more game today, so let’s go out and play the game we know we can play.” So they went out later that day and won. We went on to play the next day for 5th place. We won and took home a 5th place finish. Not what we wanted, but it is what we got along with a great learning experience.
Monday, March 1, 2010
T.E.D Prize
After watching the TED videos, it got me thinking what I would do to change the world. There are so many things that could be changed; pollution, natural resources running out, and poverty just to name a few of problems the world is facing. If I won the TED prize I would focus on the United States first. The US has a lot of their own problems that as a country need to fixed. The two main problems I would try to fix is the obesity problem that we are facing. Second, I would like to work on something to help the Hispanic learn English. There are many other problems that the US is facing, but these are the two I feel would make a big difference if solutions were found.
After watching the Jamie Oliver video I believe that obesity is a big problem that we have in the United States. I think that we need to start at young age educating people about healthy choices. Parents need to teach their kids to eat health from the get go. Once they are taught to eat healthy at home; we can keep it going by enforcing those habits in school. I don’t mean just at lunch but in the classrooms as well. We need to teach the youth how to take care of their bodies and provide them with the necessary nutrients. Teaching them how to cook the right foods would be a good start. I think that every school at some point should show the movie Super Size Me. It will make to you think twice about going to a fast food restaurant.
The second thing I would do is try to find away to help the Hispanic population that doesn’t speech English to learn how to speak English. I say this because for two summers I work in a factory where 90 percent of the employees were Hispanic. Out of those 90 percent, only about 10 percent of those could speak English well. It was so hard to work with people that I could not understand. This made it hard for the production line to get the product out efficiently. I think that companies or the government need to do something to help get everyone on the same page.
After watching the Jamie Oliver video I believe that obesity is a big problem that we have in the United States. I think that we need to start at young age educating people about healthy choices. Parents need to teach their kids to eat health from the get go. Once they are taught to eat healthy at home; we can keep it going by enforcing those habits in school. I don’t mean just at lunch but in the classrooms as well. We need to teach the youth how to take care of their bodies and provide them with the necessary nutrients. Teaching them how to cook the right foods would be a good start. I think that every school at some point should show the movie Super Size Me. It will make to you think twice about going to a fast food restaurant.
The second thing I would do is try to find away to help the Hispanic population that doesn’t speech English to learn how to speak English. I say this because for two summers I work in a factory where 90 percent of the employees were Hispanic. Out of those 90 percent, only about 10 percent of those could speak English well. It was so hard to work with people that I could not understand. This made it hard for the production line to get the product out efficiently. I think that companies or the government need to do something to help get everyone on the same page.
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