A new kind of stupid

I was a freshman once.\nNow, I can barely remember those carefree times of innocence, youth and hope.\nIt's especially hard to remember such moments when one, now a senior in his final semester, is being held over a keg by two guys he has just met and told to do a "keg stand" -- an intricate trial of stupidity in which one tries to drink from the tap, while upside down, for as long as possible.\nIf I had been told to do this when I was freshman, I would have proudly stood up on the keg and told everyone in the room that "I don't drink!" Then I would have been laughed out of the party. \nI was a smart, if unpopular, freshman.\nCollege makes you stupid.\nInstead of standing against the abuse of alcohol taking place, I acceded to peer pressure and allowed myself to become a human alcohol depository.\nLuckily, I suck at being a human alcohol depository and only lasted 10 seconds, which according to the guys holding me up was well below the average for the girls in the room. This truly broke my heart. I was fully planning on putting my "keg standing" ability on future resumes.\nCollege is supposed to change you. It's a time for making mistakes, learning from them and then making them again. The members of my church back home warned me of the dangers of a liberal education. I was walking into a "lion's den filled with drugs, alcohol and sex." \nThus far, I've only found the alcohol. Sorry Unity. I have no use for the condoms you passed out after the Iowa basketball game. I did vote for you, though.\nIs reckless hedonism really such a bad thing, though? What's wrong with a little partying? What's wrong with hooking up? What's wrong with guzzling beer straight from the tap while two strangers reverse your center of gravity?\nIt's all a matter of perspective. The people back home reading this are thinking, "I knew that liberal education would brainwash Joey." The people at the party are thinking, "I didn't know that guy was Joe Grace." My mother is thinking, "Where did I go wrong?"\nI'm thinking, "I hope I didn't catch mono."\nEverything was so simple as a freshman. There was right, and there was wrong. The gray area didn't exist. Then I met people who didn't match my preconceived idea of what was normal. And they were cool. And I met others who "sinned." And they were cool too. I never knew there were this many cool people in the world.\nMaybe this is all because I was a bit over-naïve as a freshman. I was so used to accepting whatever was stuffed down my brain, that I didn't bother thinking for myself. And I'm still guilty of that, as the "keg stand" experience shows. Has college made me stupid? Or just a different kind of stupid?\nThe great fictional character Forrest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does." Stupid is a "keg stand." Stupid is calling someone a sinner who is different from you. Stupid is believing everything you're told without thinking for yourself.\nSo, am I stupid?\nYes.\nI chase squirrels. I skate down icy sidewalks. I become intoxicated with a little peer pressure. But this is who I am. I can't change that.\nReal stupidity is never trying anything new or not accepting people for who they are.\nI refuse to be that type of stupid.