Mocktails!

by Eddie Sonnie

In my building, the RAs hosted a building-wide event which we called “Mocktails,” short for “Mock Cocktails,” where we focused on alcohol safety. We set up tables in the lobby and had information about how to safely engage with alcohol, with the attempt of giving students some guidance on how to make good decisions in the future.

We made a bunch of non-alcoholic versions of cocktails, let residents try to pour their own drink, to see if they can accurately judge how much of one drink equates to another, and they also put on a pair of “drunk goggles” and tried to do math problems! We had a bunch of different types of mocktails, including piña coladas and many more! It was a really fun event because residents got to ‘drink with their RA,’ but aside from that, we also showed them that alcohol has its fair share of negatives as well, and, when not consumed responsibly, bad things can happen.

The drunk goggles are just a normal pair of goggles, but the screen is distorted so that everything looks wacky, to simulate intoxication. I put them on for a second and definitely felt a little dizzy. We let the residents try them on and then had them try and do math problems, and let’s just say it was very entertaining. 

I think events like these are incredibly important to college-age people because they get to experience the effects of bad decisions without having to actually live through it and suffer the consequences. Having this event hosted by the RAs shows that we aren’t here to police our residents and invade their lives, but instead, we are here to help them grow and make better decisions. Overall, this event was really fun, and although we know our efforts can only do so much, we hope that our event helps them be smarter, safer, and more responsible with their decision making going forward.