On this past Friday, March 5, another celebration of Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day passed by here at the University. The event was characterized by green and beer.

And in amounts and quantities so overwhelming it just might have seemed like a bit much. Besides the obvious superficial aspects of Unofficial — it was green, it was beer-y — Unofficial seems to demonstrate the desire of college students to collectively participate in a common venture, even if is one of debauchery, vomit, and an occasion for idiocy. But why?

Unofficial is a mass event, a mass venture. It is bigger than the goals and will of any small group of students; rather, it is one big idea for an event that students adhere to. From what I know, the history of the event has something to do with a clever bar owner and the inconvenience of ‘official’ St. Patrick’s Day falling during spring break. That is beside the point, however. Somehow, this great big idea came about that UI students (plus piggy-backers from other schools) would dress up in green at the beginning of March and drink obscene amounts of alcohol.

And students do it. Many do it without a moment’s doubt or hesitation or misgiving. They slavishly go along with the prevailing winds of campus culture. This is incredible to me. Sure, a Daily Illini article attests to the many conscientious objectors of Unofficial. But, for every one of those students, there are several more that were not so much objecting to the event as objecting to their hangovers the next morning, or that same day. Sure, for many it is an excuse to engage in the dubious pastime of drinking more alcohol than is actually enjoyable.

However, I think that there really was more going on than a mere excuse to drink a lot. People care about Unofficial. The quad bore signs all week of the big day on Friday as green things were distributed. Friends nervously sent queries to old friends from nearby colleges if they would travel a little for a lot of debauchery. Green shirts with all sorts of self-pleased sayings of mediocre wit were bought. Work and sleep schedules were re-arranged to accommodate the abnormally early start time of Unofficial. Many people, if my newsfeed is like the rest, changed their Facebook profile picture to one full of green, friends, and “I-can’t-believe –I-did-that” (but I really meant to seeing how much alcohol I drank) moments. People cared about Unofficial.

People cared about Unofficial even though it should not have been personally significant at all. None of them came up with the idea for the event with friends. None of the students chose the date or the manner in which it was to be enjoyed (wake up early and drink a lot, in the many iterations in which it is possible to drink a lot). It’s not even that much fun — it’s dirty, it’s loud, it’s devoid of originality, and it’s stock full of idiocy. The continual emergency vehicle alarms indicated many bouts of alcohol poisoning. But, bigger than that, I just cannot understand why anybody would want to submit themselves to an event that everybody else is doing, that is not imaginative at all, and for which they are not responsible.

Do not get me wrong. I love to drink. Drinking with friends should be something like a constitutionally guaranteed right. But I like to do it on my own terms, imagining for myself how I will dress and act, and where I will do it. It is particularly haunting when people seemingly stake an identity around Unofficial as they make the day into Facebook profile pictures and proclaim the day one of the best and most memorable of the year. It’s unfortunate. Personally, I prefer to build my identity around my own conceived goals and projects, not around silly, desperate, un-creative college drinking events that are handed down to me as my role as a UI student.