It’s your first day of your freshman year in high school and you are sweating more than ever! You keep asking yourself: “It’s just a new school, right?” But you will soon ascertain that you are wrong. You’re walking towards school and you learn how dissimilar high school and middle school really are. This conceived notion that you had about high school is in no way like the reality of it, in fact it is the contrary. You see a group of girls smoking cigarettes! You’re walking right next to Joe who is even taller than most of the teachers! You meet this boy Sean, and two weeks have passed and Sean is now a good friend of yours. You’re sitting at lunch with your friends and Sean comes up to you and asks, “Would you like to go to a party with me at DJ’s house Friday night?” You respond with an excited “Yes!” and spend the rest of the week picking out your outfit. What you do not think about is the party itself; you have no idea that this party is a drinking party. Your friends think that you’re mad; they think you’re going to do something you’ll regret. Your friends know that all of the people attending this party spend their leisure time intoxicated, and they know that DJ’s parents are away for the weekend too. They know what the party will be like just because they have heard about high school parties, you will soon learn as well.


When you arrived at the party, Sean took out his wallet and handed an older kid ten dollars. Many other people were “Throwing fives” which you now understood as the term used to pay the person who is supplying the alcohol. It is only seven, and you cannot believe what is already going on at this party. There is alcohol; beer and vodka for the most part. There is also a large group of people smoking marijuana, or weed, in the bedroom. This is the first time you have been to a place like this, and seen people smoking weed, it is quite intimidating. Sean pours you a drink, which you thought was soda, but when you felt the burning down your throat after your first sip you knew you were wrong, yet again. Sean didn’t even ask you if you were planning on drinking that night, he didn’t even give you the chance to say no! He had told you he would have you home by midnight, but he had a drink in his hand too; how was he planning on driving you home? The reality that is hard to understand is how this many people think it is okay to drink and smoke underage; they are breaking the law! Every time you go to the bathroom you pour some of your drink down the sink, you are not going to drink at fourteen years old! The kids have started playing flip cup and beer pong; both are drinking games which get you very drunk, very fast.



Things are worsening, and you know it. Many people are going to wish that the party never happened or that they never went. It’s about eleven o’clock now, and everyone is falling over themselves; including Sean. Never mind the things people are doing, they will all have mixed feelings in the morning. Girls are absolutely making a fool out of themselves, more so than the boys. The girls are yelling mean and profane words towards their closest friends, they are arguing with almost everyone there, and there are some couples wandering off into bedrooms for hours at a time. Boys are fist fighting, throwing drinks in the air and also pouring drinks on their friends. Almost everyone at the party would be feeling regret in the morning, and a vast amount of it. Some of these kids are taking some of their clothes off and others are taking pictures of it. If those pictures ended up on face book, that could kill their chances of ever getting a good job after college. There wasn’t one person there that consumed alcohol and was showing respect for her or himself. Even you are feeling regret and you hadn’t even drunk more than a sip of alcohol; you were wishing you had stayed home.



But now, time had passed and your curfew was in a half hour, a menagerie of kids were starting to leave as well. Now this part of the party was terrifying; you were watching about fifteen kids get into their cars. Many of these kids could not even walk they were so intoxicated. Don’t these kids understand the dangers of drunk driving? How about the consequences of getting a DUI in Massachusetts? These kids could lose their license for years, or even go to jail, never mind the fact that they could die! If you get a DUI and attempt to obtain your license once again, your insurance could be as much as five thousand dollars per year! This is nothing compared to the danger of the driver being killed or killing someone because of their poor reflexes while intoxicated. Thank god that you had an older sister who could come pick you up, and knew exactly what was going on for she had been in high school once too. When you told Sean your sister was picking you up, he smiled and said, “Remember, don’t drive with anyone who is really drunk! Wait, except for me because I have mastered drunk driving!” That right there had convinced you that you would never drink until you were twenty one. How could anyone believe that they had mastered drunk driving? There are teenagers dying from motor vehicle accidents where the driver is intoxicated all over the world. Even one of Sean’s close friends had been killed by a drunk driver just a year before. And what if you were the person to kill someone’s child? What if you killed an innocent bystander because of your stupidity? Would you be able to live with yourself? Could anyone truly get over that? The two things you have been hearing over and over since you were a child; do not drink and drive and do not get in a car with someone who has been drinking. How could so many kids blatantly disobey this without a care in the world? More importantly, how could anyone disregard the danger they are putting themselves and others in? Your sister is here, you are thankful for your sister right now. You just want to get out of the house as soon as possible, you don’t even bother to say goodbye to Sean.



As you get into your car your sister starts to talk, although at the time that is the last thing you wanted her to do. She says “Honestly, drinking and smoking in high school just isn’t worth it. You can ruin everything you had planned for yourself in the blink of an eye, it’s truly devastating. None of your friends will look down upon you for saying no. It will be unspoken, but many of your friends will actually gain a new level of respect for you; you will be doing something that they never had the valor to do. No matter what people say to you, if you say no enough they will eventually hear you loud and clear. Stick to it though, you don’t want to be that person that gives up everything because you made a stupid mistake and got into your car drunk. You’re a smart girl T, you’ll know what to do when the time comes.” Even though you didn’t want to listen to your sister right now, you knew what she said would help you one day. But wouldn’t be anytime soon, you wouldn’t go to any more parties for at least a couple years, you had learned your lesson. But your friends, especially Sean, had not. Just one week later Sean’s licensed was suspended for 3 years; he was caught driving home from a party intoxicated. The parties still went on every Friday and Saturday night, but at least you were one less person in attendance, right?