With all of the debate surrounding Veishea, I have done a lot of thinking lately about alcohol and my relationship with it. And that’s what it is, a relationship.

I usually hate relationships, but this one is OK. I know just how much alcohol I can handle before the relationship turns bad.

The only way I learned that level of tolerance was through a trial-and-error experiment with alcohol.

It is with some reserve I view the proposal to have students pledge to go dry over Veishea weekend. I am especially skeptical when I look back at my last three Veisheas.

Veishea 1995 — I was a naive freshman, way too excited about the whole Veishea thing.

I talked my older sister into letting me and some friends tag along with her to a party at her friend’s house.

We drank beer and then some sort of jungle juice concoction and then more beer. Then we fell asleep/passed out on a very hard floor.

The next morning, we walked home, hung over, taking a view brief stops to throw up. Then we went to the parade.

Veishea 1996 — This was my first year living in an off-campus apartment. I still ended up partying with my friends in the residence halls.

That was the first time I ever shot-gunned a beer. And I did it four or five times. And it only took me 15 minutes. Then I drank some mystery shots. Not good.

I think I threw up shortly thereafter. We were all running around like morons in the halls. Then we all fell asleep/passed out on the really hard dorm room floor.

Veishea 1997 — Wise now in the ways of Veishea, I knew this was my year to throw a party. My roommate and I invited some friends to the Dungeon, the name of our basement apartment, and had a fine time. Two Dogs and Woodchuck were the drinks of choice.

We went through a lot of alcoholic beverages. OK, I puked again, but it wasn’t from alcohol, it was something I ate before I even started drinking. When the beer finally ran out, everyone crashed/passed out on our hard, dirty floor. I got to sleep in a nice comfy bed.

The next thing I knew it was morning, and someone was waking me up and telling me Channel 13 just announced there had been a stabbing at Veishea.

I didn’t tell you those memories because I wanted all of you to think I’m a drunk. Maybe I am, but I don’t think so. I guess I justify my partying habits with the manner in which I party. I don’t let outsiders into my parties — they only drink all the beer and trash the house.

I never let friends get wildly drunk and then go walk around town looking for excitement. I guess, if I had to say it, I party pretty responsibly. Maybe that should be the pledge.

Alcohol has been made the scapegoat of our Veishea woes. If I had not had those experiences with alcohol, I would never have learned my limit.

College life is all about living to the extreme and finding moderations that allow you to survive. Once you live life to the edge, then, and only then, do you become responsible.

Students taking a pledge to go dry over Veishea will let the university off the hook with this PR nightmare, but chances are we, the students, are still going to lose Veishea.

No administration at Iowa State wants to be remembered as the one who nixed Veishea.

Notice where the role of bad guy has been shifted — to the shoulders of the students.

We have basically been told that unless we can all agree that alcohol is not needed and will not be tolerated at Veishea, there will be no Veishea. Our legacy to future students will be the alcohol-dependent student body who let Veishea get canceled.

Let’s not pledge to go dry. If you choose not to drink, all the power to you. But this is college; the proposal is unrealistic for many of us. I don’t think every student is going to be able to make that pledge.

Looking at my history with Veishea, I don’t know if I can make that pledge. I don’t know if I want to.

To the administration, I’m afraid I don’t yet have an answer to the problem. It’s a tough one. Let’s hope our student leaders talk to students and figure out some alternative plans.

We’re going to drink. I guess all you can do is try to educate us on how to do it responsibly.

And you can bring in some good entertainment so we have something fun to do during Veishea weekend.

I can pledge to drink responsibly and to encourage others to do the same.

But I cannot, in good faith, pledge to eliminate alcohol from a college campus.

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Keesia Wirt is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Panora. She is editor in chief of the Daily.