It's called 'pop.' Change my mind
I have a confession to make: in my head, I use the word “pop” instead of “soda” when I see someone grab a Mountain Dew or when I pass the Coca Cola bottles in the campus store. It’s a part of me; I have been saying it for as long as I remember, and until I left high school, I never thought much about it. Before coming to Duke, I never realized that it was weird to say “pop” to refer to the category of sweet drinks that students add to their alcohol to mask the taste. After one of my friends caught me saying it and, mostly in jest, called my choice of words “gross,” I’ve put a lot of thought into what I say when referring to pop and rarely say the word out loud.