Worst decision of my life. That’s what one of my friends told me I would be making if I decided not to go to the annual Canada ski trip.

For those of you who haven’t been attacked with Facebook invites about going to Canada, every year juniors and seniors are asked to pack a bag, think of creative ways to hide alcohol from border patrol and head out to snow filled Mont Tremblant, Canada for three days of skiing and two nights of… well, no one quite remembers what actually goes down.

SkiTravel, the company in charge of the trip, describes the weekend as “skiing all day and partying all night.” Now don’t get me wrong, this sounds like a total blast. But the “ski” trip has adopted a connotation that pretty much defines every other event that Langley kids participate in. And that, my friends, is drinking.

Homecoming. Prom. Sports games. It’s all the same. The majority of students center their plans and attitudes around alcohol. And I’m not some psycho purist, but I find this really troubling. I remember a teacher asking me genuinely, candidly, why no one goes to homecoming. And so badly I wanted to tell her that kids look forward to that night for one reason, and it’s not the DJ or the pictures.

Canadais good, legal fun for so many reasons, especially since the drinking age there is 18, so really that is not the issue. It’s the fact that, despite everything, kids are going to look at drinking as the basis for a good time and build from there. This is not fair to our parents, teachers, or those couple kids in the group who don’t drink.

I’m not choosing to skip Canada just because there will be drinking. I’m choosing not to go because, if even SkiTravel is advertising the trip as a fun opportunity to ski, it will still be subordinate to the drinking. A “good time” should be based on the location and time spent with friends, not alcohol.