By SARA MINOGUE

STAFF WRITER

“Dear bartender, yes, I’m serious. Sincerely, I just want a juice box.”

– Dear Blank Please Blank

The quote above came from the website www.dearblankpleaseblank.com. For those of you who have never heard of this, it is a website where people can post funny one or two sentence letters that play off of ideas or events that occur in popular culture. I have a couple of these in my book and will certainly use more in articles to come.

This is one of my all time favorite quotes for many reasons. First, can you imagine this actually happening? I know if I ever saw this at a bar, I would have a good laugh and think, “Good for them.” Second, one cannot ignore the idea that this would be incredibly brave. I mean, think about it. How many St. Lawrence students would be courageous enough to ask a bartender at the Hoot or the Tick Tock for a juice box?

The unfortunate reality is I can only think of a handful of people who would ever do this at St. Lawrence. I am not saying that it is sad that we do not drink more juice as a campus; I am saying that there are not enough people on this campus who would go to the bar and order something non alcoholic. I am not saying that St. Lawrence has a drinking problem. Realistically, the campus is relatively even in terms of non-drinkers and drinkers. The problem that exists is among students who go out and drink even when they do not want to.

In my one and a half years here, I have noticed a common theme. We are in the middle of nowhere and at times it may seem like there is nothing to do but drink. Many students on this campus drink without wanting to simply because they feel as though there is nothing else that would occupy their time. Students who feel this pressure often get themselves into trouble, whether that be drinking too much, or simply feeling crappy about having to drink away their time on some evenings.

I love this quote because I like to imagine how it can be applied here at SLU. What if the students I described above took a more independent route and spent their evenings however they wanted to? What if these students followed their guts and had fun their own way? What if they were brave enough to order a juice box at a bar? Would these particular students spend less weekends drinking? Would they try to get to know their fellow peers through other means of social activity? Though the answers are uncertain, there is one thing that is: it never hurts to try something out of the ordinary!