During my teenage years, I associated alcohol with the good times: birthdays, house parties and summer holidays. It wasn't until I left home for college that my drinking took a dark turn.
The university experience is a risky business in fiction. Generally, the feelings are intense, but the stakes are low; it's all very formative for the individual character, but it can feel a bit trivial to anyone else. In fact, reading an account of someone's university days is surely only one or two stages removed from having to hear about the dream they had last night.
