Think before you take a drink

A little more than two years ago, I wrote an article in The Eagle about drinking. At that time, I was an 18-year-old, freshman college student, who had never tasted alcohol, except for the wine at church, which I don’t count.

This coming weekend, I will be turning 21 years old, legal drinking age, and as of right now, I still haven’t tasted alcohol.

When I was in the sixth grade, I went through a program called All Stars. This program was similar to DARE in many other schools. Its focus was to keep kids away from drugs and alcohol and help them become better citizens. With a presentation we put on for our parents at the completion of the program, each one of my classmates took a turn standing at the podium to make promises to ourselves and our parents about alcohol, drugs, and being good citizens. I remember listening to classmate after classmate promise they would “never use drugs and never drink alcohol,” and thinking they will never keep those promises. I specifically worded my promises to something I could and would keep.

I promised to never use drugs, ever, which I still won’t. (That would need a whole separate opinion article to explain that decision.) And I promised to never drink unless I was of the legal age, and if and when I did drink, I would do it responsibly.

I’ve watched classmate after classmate change his or her perspective on alcohol and start drinking as we got into high school, or a few waiting until college, thus breaking his or her promise to never drink. I can only name a handful of people I know who have avoided underage drinking.

I can honestly say it’s not the easiest task in college. Alcohol and the pressure to drink are everywhere. Almost everyone does it and almost everyone thinks it’s needed to have a good time. It makes me incredibly sad.

From the first time I encountered my friends drinking, and experiencing a hangover after, I had zero sympathy. If you are “suffering” from a hangover, especially when you have responsibilities the next day, it was your own stupid fault.  I never have and never will give any easy passes for people who are “suffering” from a hangover.

“You’ll think differently when you wake up with your first hangover,” everyone says. I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard that from people I know.

But it’s a lie.

I won’t wake up with a hangover. Not on my 21st and not anytime after that.

“Everyone says that until it happens,” everyone says.

It’s three days until I can legally drink, and I still haven’t decided if I will even drink on my 21st.  I believe there are so many better ways to spend my time. I believe there are much better decisions I can make with my life rather than focusing all my attention on drinking.

I used to be able to sit and have conversations with my high school and college friends. Now it seems everyone is unable to have a conversation that is longer than 20 minutes without bringing up alcohol. Alcohol, it seems, is like the center of everyone’s life.

But it shouldn’t be. Anytime I think about my friends drinking and drinking myself, I think of my 17-year-old brother, I think of the family of six perfect kids I baby sit, I think of three little girls whom I admire, and I think of a three triplets and their older sister. I think of all those kids who I want to make the absolute best decisions with their lives, and I think how unfair it is of me to ask that of them if all I focus on in my life is alcohol.

Those 13 kids along with my little brother are the reason I have avoided drinking thus far in my life and why I won’t allow myself to drink irresponsibly, if I decide to drink.

I would never claim to be perfect and I’m not condemning anyone. I’ve made many mistakes in my life and I hope those kids do better in certain areas of life compared to me. But this is one thing I’ve believed in fully since even before sixth grade.

I said in my article two and a half years ago that I couldn’t convince anyone to never drink again. And that’s never been my goal. I don’t see much wrong with drinking, if you limit yourself and are responsible with your drinking. But that’s the key; you have to be responsible.

There are so many more important things in your life instead of alcohol. Think of the people looking up to you the next time you think you need to get drunk. I guarantee there’s at least one person looking up to you, whether you know it or not.