Is alcohol a luxury or a neccessity?

There is so much I have to say about alcohol and not the typical "I love alcohol so much" that you get from a recent college graduate.

In fact, sometimes I felt a little jarred by how much life revolved around alcohol when I got to JMU. I understand alcohol is fun but literally every decision made by a JMU student could be made for alcohol. Q: Why are so many people moving off campus so early at this campus? A: Because they want to be able to drink more easily in their own rooms without an RA getting in the way Q: Where are most people going for Spring break and why? A: They're going to Panama City of Mexico or other places where drinking underage is either legal or available in such enormous quantities that you can't do it anywhere else. Q: Why are so many events like concerts and plays taking place on weekday evenings rather than weekends? A: On weekends the performers and audience will most likely be off partying or performing, etc. I even felt like there was a shallowness at JMU, to some extent, even though I have an overall positive experience and relationship with the school, because people wanted to get drunk and hook up with each other more than they wanted to do things like go on dates, go out in groups, etc.

And the one that personally got asked to me a lot and the one I found most annoying: "Why don't you have a fucking beer in your hand, dude?" asked by some inebriated guy with breath that is making me sick. One thing about drunkedness is that some people are much cooler when they're drunk but some people are much more annoying and 10 times more unpleasant when they're drunk. At parties, girls are more willing to hook up with you, granted, and you might have some interesting bonding experiences with other people (girls and guys) but you could also get into serious trouble into people when you're drunk. About a month into my stay at JMU, a fire alarm went off at a party in Southview and some panicked drunk people responded by beating me up because I happened to be near the fire alarm. At a school where drinking is a lot lighter like my first college, Mary Washington, someone getting beat up is practically unheard.

I do drink, don't get me wrong. I just don't do it every night or at every possible opportunity. There are periods of 10-15 minutes at a time when *gasp* a beer might not be in my hand.
My spring semester of my senior year, I thought I'd try to go the whole semester without drinking, just for the heck of it. I figured, I don't drink that much anyway, and it made me a more interesting person to talk to at parties, but I digress....I just don't drink that much and I'm ok with you drinking a lot, but don't make me feel excluded because I don't feel like drinking on this particular occasion was all I was saying.....but that was some commentary on life at JMU....let's talk about the present:

I notice that I go to a bar and have one drink maximum because they're expensive. I often have coke because I don't feel like drinking. Why am I in a bar, you ask? I just like being in the bar atmosphere. You're in closer proximity to girls or just cool people to meet, if there's a sports' game, it makes for a rowsing atmosphere, etc. etc. Is there anything wrong with that? (Usually there is for the bartenders, however). Anyway, I'm also not doing that well monetarily since ending my paid internship three weeks ago, so there's even less reason to buy beer when I go out. It's just not sensible. Unfortunately for the grouchy bartenders who want big bills and big tips, it's bad news for them because I have more free time on my hands since I'm not working and a greater need for companionship (people to talk to, it helps cure the depression of not working, by companionship, i'm not implying I'm trying to find a wife at the bar).

I was at the bar the other night with some friends and I noticed those guys were not thinking much about their bills. They just decided, let's get some beers and their bills ended up being fairly big. At some point, sensible economic spending went out the window with these guys, which is why I imagine bars are such a goldmine. I do have to wonder though, how many of the people going out to the bar and ordering beers are people in the same economic situation as me where they don't have a job, because I know a lot of people who were unemployed for a while after college and I wonder if their beer consumption dropped or did they just go on spending large amounts of money on beer as their bank accounts emptied.