After getting all dressed up, she heads over to the pre-party. There, she downs a beer or two, take a couple shots and then heads out to the party. It doesn’t matter whether it’s at house, frat, bar or night club because the same scenario unfolds. It starts with a few beers, and then some cocktails interspersed with several rounds of shots with her friends. She is having an awesome time. But she should be, right? That’s what all the pre-party liquor was for.

She begins slurring her words and stumbling, Giggling at her intoxication as she spills two-thirds of a drink on herself. Then she begins falling over, spilling other people’s drinks and grabbing on to anything that will prevent her face from meeting the floor. She spreads the love; hugging and kissing any bystander she recognizes. Every song is “the best song ever” and must be sung and danced to on the tabletops. And that is the last of the night that she will remember. She has blacked out, but she hasn’t passed out.

Her slurred words turn to gibberish. Continuing to stumble, she knocks into things while instinctively making her way to the bathroom. Taking a spill on the way, she is lucky she made it to this porcelain sanctuary because for the next three hours she spews vomit from both her mouth and nose. She shakes. She sweats. She pisses herself. And while in and out of consciousness, she pleads and promises to God she will never drink again if only this night could just be over. But it isn’t and it won’t be, because tomorrow not only will she find she has a massive hangover, but someone has posted pictures of her sloppy drunk all over the Internet.

This should be every girl’s nightmare – not just being ridiculously drunk in public but in an age where any Joe Blow can take a picture or video of you and upload it onto the Internet. But unfortunately for many it isn’t. For thousands of girls, pictures and videos from the night they’ll never remember are something to laugh at, cherish and share with the entire online community. Instead of being frightfully ashamed of their drunken episodes they are flaunting them all over the Internet.

Thousands of people have joined the Facebook group “30 Reasons a Girl Should Call It a Night,” posting pictures of their binge-drinking episodes for people to laugh at. But this really isn’t a laughing matter. Forty-eight percent of all college students engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking is having five or more drinks in two hours. Oftentimes, those students participating in binge drinking will consume 10-15 drinks in a two hour period. This heavy drinking puts students – particularly females – at high risk for injury, sexual assault, death, and now endless amounts public scrutiny and ridicule. What should have been an embarrassing night of too much to drink is now being applauded.

This holiday season, the liquor business will rake in 25 percent of the entire year’s profits. And a heavy portion of that will be from college students, who spend 5.5 billion dollars annually on alcohol. So, before you head out to that pre-party, think about how much you want to drink and how much you should drink. If you still want to get wasted, think about how you’ll feel hugging that toilet, how you’ll feel the next morning, and how you’ll feel when a friend or worse – some random individual – posts pictures of you in compromising or sickly situations from the evening before which you can’t even remember.

Choquette Marrow can be reached at [email protected].