Substitute
your 21 shots for 21 hugs, kisses,
spankings
Krystle Ralston & Jenna McDaniel
So, you are turning 21.
You’ve got your big party planned out. All the friends you have had since
preschool will be present to celebrate and enjoy the festivities. But did it
ever cross your mind this could be the last night of your life?
A prominent tradition on 21st birthdays is for the birthday boy or girl to take
21 shots of alcohol. In a recent edition of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, eight
letters written for the section “Dear Abby” reported the authors
saw this supposed “rite of passage” result in tragic consequences.
Out of these eight, two lived, and let’s just say they were not the same
people they were before.
Both of us will admit we are drinkers. We will not lie and say we don’t
like it. But neither of us get drunk to fit in or escape from our troubles. We
toast our glasses to celebrate anything we think of, whether one of us got an
A on a midterm or the fact we all woke up that morning alive and well.
Drinking to celebrate your 21st birthday is a completely justified reason to
throw back a few shots. The key word in that sentence though, was
few.
To drink yourself up to the level of complete insanity, when you cannot walk,
talk or see two feet in front of you is contradictory to the concept of partying
because you can no longer comprehend whether or not you are actually having fun.
When morning comes, reality sets in with headaches, bruises from unknown sources
and images that seem to be more like glimpses of what happened during the night
than actual memories.
The outcome of drinking too much and the seriousness behind the act can easily
be lost in a college setting. Everyone thinks about the now and not the later,
when you could be hugging the porcelain god.
Drinking can be a fun and uplifting experience when done right. It is expected
by everyone from your best friends to your grandmother that you will drink on
your 21st birthday, but it does not give you the privilege to consume to the
point of comatose. We are not saying not to have to fun on this joyous occasion
and experiment with alcohol, but let’s face it, you have the rest of your
life to keep drinking so why waste all of your liver cells in one night?
Being on this planet for 21 years is more than enough reason to celebrate. At
12:01 a.m. on my 21st, I (Krystle) drank.
The bartender smiled and mumbled something about me not wasting any time.
My fellow roommate, Jenna, is not yet of legal drinking age, but in less than
two years she will be joining me in my barhopping journeys on Friday nights.
Until then, we attend parties where we can laugh and hang out with friends while
sipping, and at times chugging, our alcoholic beverages. When enough is enough,
one calls the other.
The next morning, we wake up tired eyes and groggy heads, but nothing too different
from a Monday morning. We do not down liquor like water; we treat our bodies
with respect. We intend to keep it for a while and not destroy ourselves as we
pay out the you-know-what just to attend college and head out into the real world
toward a bright and promising future.
The newbies who chose to take 21 shots in the small time frame of a few hours
threw away their lives because it was “their 21st birthday.” Even
the shy bookworm sips a drink or two on his or her birthday. But 21 shots is
just too much alcohol in so little time. It is pathetic and dangerous.
By all means have fun on your birthday, but at some point should you no longer
see the 55 year old next to you as your grandpa, but rather a hot piece of something,
step away from the drink and remain calm. You are currently hammered and must
refrain from consumption of “liquid courage” for the rest of the
night.
Keep the night in perspective. You are 21 for an entire year and will want to
live to see the next day. Make sure you have people surrounding you who are responsible
enough to keep the night under control, and watch what you drink.
Live it up enough to keep living.
Krystle Ralston is a senior journalism major and the calendar editor of the Daily
Forty-Niner. Jenna McDaniel is a sophomore art major.
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