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Turning 21
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Posted by b_dog Fri Oct 7, 2005 10:41:00 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments There appear to be three landmark ages that a young person anticipates eagerly.

The first is turning 16, when they are granted the ability to drive and are legally able to work. The second is 18 , when a teenager has become a "legal" adult and can vote and buy lottery tickets, X-rated magazines and cigarettes. And the third awaited age is 21, when the young person is granted the privilege to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages.

Just under a month from now, I will have reached the third age milestone. After this, there doesn't seem to be an age mark that anyone looks forward to. Nay, from then on the only thing ahead is just growing older.

So what will turning 21 bring for me? Aside from getting hired at the job I want (knock on wood) and listening to my parents' lectures about being a "true" adult and all associated responsibilities, I can now put drinks containing a peculiar substance -- ethanol -- into the grocery basket.

The alcoholic drink has been an integral component of human culture for countless centuries. Throughout its existence of human consumption it has provided many good times, and many bad times.

Certainly human beings consume these drinks not simply, or even largely, for their taste or to satisfy their thirst but to reap -- or suffer -- the benefits of being inebriated. People like to drink with friends or in a party environment because it does act as a social lubricant, reducing their inhibitions and fostering an ambience of jolliness.

Well, at least for a while. If the drinking continues, then their BAC gets a wee bit high, they tend to act pretty dumb and foolish, they think they can do things they really can't, and sometimes they can even get violent.

Too much of anything is bad for you, but in the case of alcohol, it doesn't take much.

And a most egregious manifestation of alcohol-induced behavior is driving drunk, which every year is responsible for so many lives lost. At least one hundred years ago a gentleman in a top hat, upon leaving the pub three sheets to the wind, benefited from the discretion of the horse in front of the cart.

It is because of the irresponsibility of those who drink that the above problems exist, and alcohol can easily be kindling for danger. I have seen these dangers realized in things I have seen on the news as well as in people that I have known. Doing ride-alongs with Hall Ambulance's Explorer Program, I have seen how people have been negatively impacted by their abuse of alcohol. I hope to use their mistakes as a lesson before I am presented with the same situations.

Fortunately, there are many campaigns and organizations dedicated to combating these evils and helping people with their addictions, including MADD and AA.

I look forward to having my new privilege. I am curious to try some of the different stuff that is out there. But I am aware of the serious dangers involved in alcoholic consumption. If I am to drink, I must do so with the highest responsibility, I must do so in moderation, and I must never touch a wheel.

I am glad to have a family that is responsible and supportive. Any young person approaching 21 could only ask for the same.

Brandon Seger

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