Fun before 21

In exactly one month, I'll be celebrating my birthday, number 21; college's uniting rite of passage and the day our drinking habits are legalized.\nThat's right, administration and alumni, we've been drinking underage. Surprise! Yes, I know we're not supposed to, but consider our alternatives. Are we really going to just sit in our domiciles on a Friday night, watching people go to and from the bars and parties thinking, "Gee, only a few more years and I could be doing that!" Sure, there are some sober activities on campus, but most of us would rather play bingo at the old folks' home or read bedtime stories to sea sponges. Few and far between is anyone on campus who has seriously posed the question, "Hmm, should I go to the IMU to watch a faded movie with bad sound or get wasted at a campus keggeraider?" But even if they're serious, most of the time the answer is, "Well it depends. Will they have beer at the movie?" \nOnly a year ago the Princeton Review rated IU as the number one party school in the country. How can half the campus stay away from the action, waiting for some arbitrary day to come along when supposedly they can handle alcoholic beverages? Of course they can't, and thanks to their unending resiliency, under-21-year-olds have found many ways of skirting the laws that would potentially keep them in their dorms, apartments and houses, stone sober until 21 rolls around. \nOur methods change from year to year. As freshmen living in the dorms, we all tried to befriend the man with a fake ID. Buffalo Joe he was called, a combination of his given name and hometown. The "Buffalo" especially seemed to fit his animal-like nature. Not only did he drink enough beer on a given night to take down the animal of his namesake, he also supplied half our floor with beer and spirits all year. Good times they were. But dorm drinking was just the beginning, and getting to know the complexities of IU's party scene was like a five-credit-hour class in itself. Adding to the foray, the quest for the bars soon begins.\nIt's never easy the first time anyone walks up to a doorman with someone else's ID in hand. You do everything you can not to pay nervous attention to the doorman checking the pictures, your heart beating like a drummer on speed. Silly ideas go through your head -- "Hmm, the face on the ID is looking directly into the camera. Maybe if I turn my head to the side he won't be able to tell that's not me. I see my friends inside. I'll just wave to them like I go in there all the time. Jeez, this frekkin' door guy is really eyeballing me now. Say something."\n"Um, that's me in the photo. Really, it's not fake."\nDarn it. Darn it. Darn it.\nSo much for being a smooth operator. The doorman just shakes his head, hands back the ID, and the rest of the night is a blackout.\nNaturally there are some forces working against underage drinkers. Indiana has recently approved the use of ID scanners in liquor stores to ensure the authenticity of drivers licenses. The scanners are already in use at campus retailers such as Big Red Liquors. Yet as effective as it is, this initiative is only a small obstacle on the way to Boozetown.\nWhen the big day finally rolls around, the celebration is anticlimactic. The ritual of the 21st birthday is less a rite of passage and more of an experiment to see how close one can get to alcohol poisoning without actually being taken to the hospital. Ironically, most 21st's go better than an average night of heavy drinking. The large crowd surrounding newly legal drinkers is like a personal torture entourage, keeping them from serious danger yet ensuring plenty of pain the next morning.