Lifestyles of the Young and Reckless

College is an awesome time for a young adult, don't get me wrong. The independence, a great education, new experiences, new places, and new friends, are all wonderful. It's the other side of college that is damaging. After walking in on people having sex in our hall bathroom, seeing drunk people stumble through the streets, hearing offensive music blaring all over campus, and hearing swear words roll off the tongue like they were going out of style, I start to have my doubts about the "college lifestyle." A lifestyle that is self-perpetuating and happens on basically every campus that I've heard of, with mine being the prime example because well, I see everything first-hand. Granted, I know I am conservative and definitely have a different lifestyle than most my age, but these are inherent cultural standards that are being broken here! College lifestyle and colleges themselves are promoting immoral behavior, encouraging drinking (which with young adults is usually binge drinking just to get drunk), pushing sex, and promoting experimenting with anything, everything, and everyone. If the whole world was living like this we would be in deep waters indeed! I'm all for having fun - dancing, spending time with friends, staying up late, driving around town at all hours of the day, and doing the stupid, fun things young adults do - but you have to put SOME limits on yourself. Have a little more respect for your body, your mind, those around you, and the community as a whole.

What I hate seeing the most is girls who take college lifestyle to the extreme. By binge drinking and taking shot after shot after shot, girls put themselves in very vulnerable positions. They may end up going farther than they wanted to with a certain boy, making a fool of themselves in front of a house full of people, or put themselves in incredibly dangerous situations by wandering off, walking home at late hours in a poor state, or taking off with a not so good guy. Also, whether they're drunk or not, college girls (and a lot of older girls as well) throw themselves at boys who are complete JERKS and treat them terribly, but they know they can do whatever they want and the girl will still melt for them because they have a nice body or they're on the right sports team. These boys feel no need to change their ways because why would they if they can get the girl either way? A lot of these boys will treat girls like objects, get what they want out of us, and then move on to the next girl; they feel no need to look for long-term relationships or develop values that will lead to lasting marriages in the future. I heard a quote once which is kind of disturbing but applicable nonetheless: Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? I do not mean to say by any means that all boys or girls are like this or that they're even the majority, but many students live this way to some extent during their college career and it just makes me sad.

Right now colleges are promoting alternative, unsustainable, damaging lifestyles instead of best preparing students to become moral members of society: stressing things like family values, respect for your body, self control, courteousness, general manners, and good old-fashioned ethics - that sometimes you don't do something not because it is against the law, but because it just wouldn't be right. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. Colleges should promote the idea that girls are worth a little more than just their looks and that they should value their body, treating it with respect and not just giving it up to anyone. They should help boys know how to respect a woman and treat them like ladies, acting more like gentlemen than animals. Yes, a lot of these things should be taught in the home, but our communities and schools can take the bull by the horns as well! If students develop these ideas in college, we will be releasing not only smart, college-educated people into the workforce and general society, but morally righteous people. So, fellow college students, I understand we're away from our parents and have the freedom to do virtually whatever we want without them knowing, but show a little self-control and stop to think about things before you do them, thinking about the future and long-term values you have rather than tonight's party. By making good decisions now, you'll be happier with yourself, have more self-respect, and be a better all-around person. That's a whole lot better than winning a game of beer pong.