Contextual Factors In My Life

Words: 1105
Pages: 5

As a twenty-one year old, a psychoactive drug called alcohol has been part of my life for 6 years. My first sip of alcohol was due to peer pressure and social acceptance. During high school, I went through phases where I barely consumed alcohol and phases where my friends and I would binge drink at social gatherings. The summer going into sophomore year was my worst phase. Because I was dating an older guy, I thought I had to smoke marijuana and drink because he did; I wanted him to accept me. The older I got and surrounded myself with different people, the less I drank alcohol. As a result of drinking alcohol in high school, the alcohol scene in college did not have a major impact on my life. I knew I wanted to do well in school, and was able …show more content…
Each individual has a choice to consume alcohol or to do other drugs or not. I have learned that you do not have to participate in any of the drugs, and you will not be judged by the contextual factors that can affect drug use. In fact, lots of students in sororities and alcohol decide not to participate with drugs or certain types of drugs. There have been multiple occasions where I went out with my friends completely sober, sometimes to fraternity gatherings, and there was no judgement. Sometimes my friends would peer pressure me to join them, but it did not hurt their feelings if you said no. On the other hand, during my first semester of my junior year of college, I heavily participated in the consumption of alcohol. One of the statistics said that “college students consume an average of 5.4 alcoholic drinks per week.” However, during this phase of my lifetime, I would drink on 5 out of the 7 days in the week. Therefore, the average amount of drinks I consumed was usually more than 5.4 drinks. Sometimes I would go have one or two drinks with friends, while other times we would binge drink. Because I drank so much my first semester of junior year of college, it had an impact on my second semester of not drinking as much. Second semester is also when I turned twenty-one on February 8th. I have realized that since I turned twenty-one, my alcohol consumption has dramatically …show more content…
The use of marijuana was not common in my life. It was mainly used for fun or pleasure, which is known as illegal recreational drug use. However, I experienced side effects of marijuana that I did not particularly enjoy or thought was fun. I never smoked alone, I was usually with friends. Therefore, it was more of a social factor in my life. Furthermore, I would become paranoid or very silent when I used marijuana. Because it made me very uncomfortable in social situations, I decided to stay away from it. It did not give me the thrill that it does to other people. It also did not bother me or my friends around me if I do not join in on the drug use. Another reason not to do drugs is because of drug tests. I would like to be in the medical field in the future and most of the jobs drug test. I was volunteering at the hospital and they made me perform a urine drug test. I was nervous at first but realized that I would be fine since I do not do drugs and have not smoked marijuana in years. Therefore, with random drug tests that can show up in my life, I would rather stay away from illicit drugs than lose a job