It starts by nonchalantly stealing varying volumes of your parents’ liquor, hoping they won’t notice, and progresses to keeping a straight face at the Safeway checkout counter as your 20 dollar bill and fake ID score you and your friends alcohol. For freshmen, one sip of alcohol is bold. It makes them different.

By the time these freshmen become seniors, a majority of their schoolmates will be drinking every weekend, according to the Healthy Kids survey.

Results from the survey suggest that as PHS students progress from grade to grade, drinking becomes increasingly regular and accepted.

But first, there’s the underclassman dry spell, which often results from freshmen arriving in high school with a negative view of drinking, anonymous sophomore, “Helen”, said.
“In middle school I thought, ‘I won’t do that: it’s bad for your brain and only bad things happen when you’re drunk,’” Helen said.

Others anticipate drinking before stepping foot on campus as a freshman.

“I always thought it was something that you waited till high school to do as a freshman,” anonymous freshman, “Evelyn”, said.
Those who condemn drinking early on during high school may find that it becomes a regular part of high school life, the way Evelyn saw it happen with her friends.

“Almost all of my friends said they wouldn’t drink until halfway through sophomore year,” Evelyn said. “Now that’s all changed.”

As a freshman, assimilating into upperclassman party culture and acceptance from such upperclassman causes freshman to partake, Evelyn said.
“If you drink too much then you embarrass yourself, but if you don’t drink then they think you’re lame,” Evelyn said.

However, when one starts to drink, gauging tolerance can be difficult. As a result, people surpass their limit and are forced to face the consequences, Evelyn said.

“Freshmen usually don’t know how to handle themselves so sometimes they learn the appropriate time to stop the hard way,” Helen said.

After trial and error, students still drink because of the social benefits they feel it brings.

“One of the main motivations behind drinking in high school is to discover a new way of having fun at events like parties and get togethers,” anonymous senior, “Tommy”, said.

As students experiment more with drinking, they may find personal justifications that provoke further participation.

“Students also find appeal in the new more confident version of themselves that drinking can provide for them most of the time,” Tommy said.
As drinking becomes more widespread, those who stay sober can feel left out from the experience that accompanies intoxication.

“The one person who isn’t drinking usually feels like an outsider,” Helen said. “For example, my friend who chose to not drink at a recent party said, ‘This is not fun sober.’”

Not all disdain towards drinking disappears, but as the acceptability of drinking increases, the judgement towards those who do drink decreases, according to Tommy.

“Because drinking is commonplace by senior year, no one really bats an eye at the thought of someone drinking,” Tommy said.