“Binge drinking: because what else can you do in Savannah?”
First-hand accounts of the fun yet dangerous activity from the POV of SCAD students.
January 22, 2023
Drinking culture in America is one that has quite a few ways you can look at it and is one of a complex nature. Adding in socio-economic elements that divide the United States while viewing it from the lens of the drinking culture prevalent here, it becomes a much more complicated issue. For example, drinking a Budweiser on your porch at 10 am on a Thursday is considered problematic and erratic behavior but if the beer transforms into a mimosa and the porch into a rooftop; viola you don’t have a drinking problem anymore!
Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design often find themselves walking the fine line of “suitable” drinking habits. The line itself being the deciding factor between if you’re considered trashy or classy. Having lived on both sides of the line with friends who also enjoy line dancing; it wasn’t hard to assemble the crew for an interview.
Upon being asked how many drinks he consumes daily Gregory says “Oh man, that’s a hard question because I go the entire week without drinking and then BAM its whiskey sours at night and adding vodka to redbull because I can’t drink that s**t straight.” He has no love for energy drinks unless there’s a couple shots of Tito’s to go with it. “…things have changed since I graduated and moved out of Savannah though” he explains while making a feeble attempt to save face.
“Oh my god don’t get me started, freshman year was crazy we would go to The Grove on Fridays and get wasted on grapefruit mimosas and bellinis. We usually asked the bartender to keep it coming until we were either drunk and then cut off or done eating.” Jyo answers the same question. “Senior year it got dark though we got carried away with graduating and being done with college and found ourselves in situations that we would have not gotten into if we were sober,” Mia says without skipping a beat.
The sudden freedom received by high school students upon getting into college coupled with the urge to find out the realities of the world puts students in a vulnerable spot. Many think that this can be brushed aside since “it’s just college” but some students pose the serious threat of not graduating from college long after they have received their degrees. The casualized drinking habits slowly become compulsions and alcohol becomes the driving factor leading to issues that don’t need explicit mentions.
“I really love binge drinking because what else can you really do as a SCAD student who majors in dramatic writing and lives in Savannah” Gregory playfully jokes upon being asked what his favorite hobby is. Most of us will surely agree that it’s funny because it’s true. There’s no denying that alcohol is a semi taboo issue and needs to be discussed and talked about openly, freely and without judgement to take away the power and hold it has on the lives of people; especially students. Getting drunk is definitely a blast but can get out of hand quickly and it’s a fact that too much of anything more often than not has a negative effect.