Someone once told me that you're not an alcoholic until you graduate. We heard this and laughed while binge drinking over the weekend on a rooftop bar, sipping our fruity cocktails and thinking nothing of it. I guess that's the beauty of the phrase, right? We can enjoy the irony as we attempt to destroy our livers, following what we presume is what we are supposed to do as students. Down it, fresher! I can't say that I'm not guilty in this cycle of drinking. Hell, I make my own wine in my closet and am sipping a gin and lemonade as I write this. I'm not as heavy of a drinker as I used to be, partially due to money and a higher standard of alcohol, but also due to working in the morning. I do have a beer everyone once and a while when dragged out to a social event, but not at the levels my peers were chugging back tequila shots faster than their stomachs could bring it back up. It's not fun being the most sober person in the room, and maybe that's a reason why we do it, in silent competition with one another. Or we know that the most sober of us is the one who has to take care of the most drunk one and spends their night in the hospital as their friend gets their stomach pumped. On the other hand, maybe it's the ever-depreciating mental state of the country's youth. I remember living with several other STEM students my first year at university, and when I was stress crying in my room, questioning my ability to carry on, I was told to drink. I liked the way it felt, just enough to calm me down. Relax, enjoy a glass of wine (preferably with a bath and a good book) and breathe. But my fellow students can't go a day without drinking something. Chugging cider after cider, shot after shot. Doesn't matter the day, or the plans for tomorrow. It's about living in the now. I always joke about being an alcoholic when people see my beer fridge in my room, but the number of cans rarely change. I know a girl who pours 10 shots or more in her drink, or as she puts it "until I can taste it," and assumes its four. I think it comes down to the culture, which is probably where the saying comes from. University students drink and study. We're young, we don't get hangovers. But I find it really sad. I'm not against drinking, but I am when you get to the point where you're belligerent and blackout. Moderation is key, but I fear many of us won't get to that point. Have fun in university, enjoy hanging out with friends. This is the only time your life will be like this. I just can't help but feel sorry for the girl who'd rather spend hundreds of dollars on cheap booze than more than $30 a month on food. The girl who talks constantly about wanting to travel, but would rather have that $50 case of beer every week. But hey, it's only alcoholism if we're graduated.

How would I describe myself? It seems like that question comes up over and over, from my scholarship applications to my Tinder bio. I usually try to sum it up with "I'm a nerd who loves travel," but that seems like a copout. So, who am I? I'm a university student, hence the nerd part, studying mechanical engineering with a hefty sprinkling of a business minor to keep life interesting. I love what I study, despite all the long nights locked in the lab building long past everyone else has left, crying over my computer because “final project code attempt #13” wouldn't work. I never wanted to be studying engineering, but here I am going into year three of six. My dad always joked about me following in the footsteps of “the greatest man I know,” but I always laughed saying there was no way that would ever happen. I didn't really know what I wanted until I took an engineering class in high school and the rest is history. For now, who knows what I'll be studying? Maybe planes? Space? Robots? The world is my oyster. Traveling has always been something I love. My favourite quote is the cheesy classic: “The world is a book and those who don't travel only read a page.” It's true though and I am trying to travel the world bit by bit and experience the different cultures. I actually learned a whole new language in order to travel more easily, although my parents were more interested in challenging me by putting me in French Immersion (see the part about me being a nerd). Learning French was a lot more fun than I thought and let me move to France when I was sixteen by myself. The only challenge with that was that I knew Quebecois French. For those who don't know, Quebecois French is a lot lazier than Parisian French. It has this nifty thing where if you don't know a word in French, you can usually just say the English equivalent with a French accent, and they'd understand you. This led to many weird experiences, especially when I accidentally told an elderly couple that I was pregnant the first time I met them, but I digress. I love traveling. Most recently, I came back from a trip to Scotland. It's a romanticized country, both in literature and on television, but they don't do it justice. It's an absolutely beautiful place filled with the friendliest people I've met. There are so many castles all with unique stories. I also learned a lot more about history, things you don't get to learn halfway across the world. I've been to England several times over, insisting to fly through London to my destination. Every time I go, I see something new and there's still so much for me to discover. Most recently, I discovered a little hole in the wall Charles Dickens Museum. My next place on my bucket list is Germany. Seeing what you've studied cannot be described in words, and I look forward to visiting history in person. So that covers my bare-bones summary of myself, but I think that anyone can say those things. Everyone loves to travel and being nerdy isn't necessarily an uncommon thing. So, the question still stands, who am I? I think it boils down to I don't know. I'm an almost twenty-year-old girl in university. I have my whole life ahead of me and no one knows what I will accomplish. That possibility excites and terrifies me, but I look forward to seeing what the future holds.