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As college students, we make hard decisions all the time.
Some of us, for the first time in our lives, are making decidsions on our own.
Whether we like it, our decisions are based highly on what has happened in our past and what we see in our future.
This will come as no shock to anyone when I say some of our hardest decisions have to do with alcohol.
Guess what? We’re not the only ones who think about our future and reflect on the past.
Over break, I went to my small Midwestern hometown that is much like many of your own hometowns. I walked into the house to find my parents having the “I thought you told them that” discussion.
For me, this is quite humorous, as my oldest sibling is 35 years old and my parents are just having this conversation now.
My parents are lucky; they did not talk to us, and none of us have had serious alcohol problems. The point is, however, they did not talk to us.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put out an ad campaign called “Start Talking Before They Start Drinking.” The ads for this campaign feature an adorable 7-year-old attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
The 7-year-old stands up and says, “My name is Tyler and in nine years I’ll be an alcoholic. I’ll start drinking in middle school, and by the time my parents talk to me about it in high school I’ll already be in some trouble. The thing is my parents won’t even see it coming.”
These ads illustrate the harsh reality that kids are using alcohol earlier than ever. So what? What does this have to do with you and me? We are role models to many young people in the Fargo-Moorhead, as well as to our hometowns.
Some of us are aunts or uncles; some of us have younger siblings; and believe it or not, some of us already have children. We hold the power to keep alcohol out of the hands of youth.
What is equally important is that we are role models for each other.
Only we have the power to change ourselves and to help make our community and our own personal lives safer.
We can do this by making low-risk choices and making those choices known.
In the end, your words and actions influence others. They affect your friends, family, peers, the community, and most of all, the people you care about the most.
The choice is yours. Next time you do something, think whether you would do it if a 7-year-old was watching.
In conjunction with the “Start Talking Before They Start Drinking” ad campaign, town hall meetings addressing underage drinking are happening simultaneously around the United States tonight at 7. People in our community will share their thoughts, ideas and perceptions regarding underage drinking at 7 p.m. in the Fargo City Hall, Commission Room. This meeting is open to the public.
Erienne Fawcett is an NDSU student and paid employee of the Office of Orientation and Student Success. Her job is to educate students about alcohol and its effects.