Your roommate is pretty immature to think that alcohol is just for getting drunk, but such is life in college. Trust me, you're going to see a lot of it. Hopefully she changes her attitude and learns that only crappy booze is for getting drunk, and it's a waste to get wasted on the better stuff. Anyway, don't worry so much. As long as you're wise enough to never drive while you drink, have some fun. Everybody else will be embarrassing themselves too.

I mean, unless you're underage, of course.....

First I think you have to want to to try drinking, once you've decided that, then you won't feel so guilty. It's totally personally choice to drink or not to drink, I know a lot of people won't touch the stuff because of family members being alcoholics and they just don't want to be a part of that. And that's okay. True being underage has all its risk when going into a club, for yourself and the club itself. Why bother risk a fine. You might be having more of an issue because drinking/alcohol just wasn't in your household growing up. With college, alcohol is just one of those things that is always present. You don't have to drink, but I think you have to get use to seeing your friends getting way too drunk and making fool of themselves and making some bad decisions. BUt as a sober friend you can be there to make sure they don't get out of hand.

Besides all the drinking stuff, I think one of life lessons is you need to get over feeling of embarassment. You need to be able to laugh at yourself. Even when you do go to a club and not drinking, but you want to try dancing, you probably are goign to have to laugh at yourself. If you don't know how to dance, lock your door in your room, blast some music (or earphones) and just try to dance. A lot of girls at bars try to dance sooooo seductively because they are aiming for the guys to oogle them. I'm sort of the opposite, I just don't care, I"ll dance fairly stupid but it's okay, you don't have to have rhythm. Look at guys dancing a lot of them don't have any rhythm at all. I also have a friend who just hates to dance because I think of this fear of not knowing how to, so she just sits at the table the whole night, which she prefers, so you can do that too. People will try and grab you and brin gyou to the dance floor so beware of that.

I'd say, if you want to try drinking, try it in a safe environment. Have good/real friends around and just take it slow, so you know how it feels and how you will act under the influence. Don't have any of them that are like "chug this, shoot that" because you'll get way too crazy and might get quite sick too fast.

You are young and you still have loads of time to try out drinking and partying and just life experiences in general. Don't even for one second say that you are losing out in life because you decided to stay home from going to the bar. Instead go to on campus concerts or events and just live your life. You'll be okay.

Don't be so self-conscious! Realize that most people are self conscious too, so they will be focused on themselves as well, not you. If you want to go out with your friends, you could consider doing a nice makeup job, and getting some classier clothes which could make you look older. Drinking is definitely not the only way to have fun, but why are you so afraid of it? You are obviously curious about it, so you could try it just to have the experience, but make sure you don't overdo it, just have one or two drinks the first time. Most of all, relax and have some fun, that's what college is about! Also, hate to say it but I've found it to be true that you get a lot less self conscious when you drink. That is one of the reasons many people do it, they use it as a 'social lubricant' to reduce their inhibitions. I'm not saying this is great, but just use moderation and don't drink and drive. Most of all, relax, you are a much harsher critic on yourself than anyone else is.

I forgot to mention that if you decide to drink, make sure that you NEVER leave your drink unattended, because someone could slip date rape drug in it!

If you're worried about not being able to dance, think about this.

If everyone is drunk, they are probably not going to remember your dancing anyway.

You could also try taking a dance class. It's not the same as dancing in a club, but you will be able to learn about moving to music, which will possibly make you feel less self concious about your dance abilities in a social setting. In addition, you'll be able to make some new friends as well.

If you choose to try drinking alcohol, there is the option of having just 1 drink. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach.

Most of all, make sure you're only doing things that you want to be doing, rather than doing things to fit in. Sad as it is, sometimes as you grow older you will drift apart from people who you once considered good friends because your lifestyles are not the same. If you really do not want to be out drinking and dancing, that's a perfectly valid choice. Find things that you do enjoy doing and I'm sure you will find people with common interests you can be friends with, whether that's your old friends or new ones.

Oh, and if you choose finding new friends, it doesn't mean you have to lose contact with your old friends. You can organise to do other things together, shopping, movies, dinner etc.

Good luck with whatever you decide