Turning 21 years old is a milestone in the U.S….it is the age in which one is legally able to purchase and consume alcohol.
Many 21-year-olds spend this significant birthday in the bars, drinking as much as they can. Shot after shot, drink after drink…everyone seems to want to buy the birthday guy/girl a birthday drink, right?
It is very sad that in in the past few weeks in MN alone we have had 2 young ladies die from alcohol poisoning on their 21st birthdays. Another 20-year-old man at St Cloud State (my alma mater) died from alcohol poisoning this past weekend. Many of them had blood-alcohol levels of .3 +
Hearing these stories scare the crap out of me, especially when I think back to my own 21st birthday. I will NOT post specifics about that night almost 10 years ago, but I do remember the first few hours being very fun. I was in college at the time and had a group of at least 20 friends take me out for a night on the town. This is what EVERYONE did on their 21st birthdays where we went to school. There was a ton of pressure to drink, drink, drink and everyone I knew was buying me all kinds of drinks and shots….several that I never ended up drinking. My birthday probably would have been very different if it had fallen during a time when I was back home….it would have been much more low-key. I do not remember much after those first few hours at the bar on my 21st, but I do know that I could easily have ended up as one of these stupid kids who takes the celebration too far. In fact I did take it too far, I am just lucky that I lived to tell about it.
Do you think hearing stories like this will lessen the risks people take on their 21st bday? Do you think friends will be smarter about purchasing drinks when they know they could be held accountable if their friend dies? Or do you think it is expected these days for the 21st birthday to be the ultimate drinking binge? Are college kids more likely to overdue it because of peer pressure? Another blogger for the Star Tribune asks similar questions on his blog.
Anyone care to share how they celebrated their 21st birthday?
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Check out these other TFT posts this week:
Michelle on the good and bad of human nature
Robyn (following up to Michelle’s post) on rehabilitation in prison
Heather on age appropriateness of popular media
Zoe on Britney Spear’s breakdown
Jenny on Facebook and punishments for kids posting pics of themselves drinking underage
i celebrated mine at the casino’s!! i didn’t get smashed though…i was to busy feeding the machines money and playing craps and blackjack!!
i don’t think hearing these stories will change the way they think…and i say that because of the ole “but it won’t happen to me” sad but true
well, I hate to agree with Greta, but I think she’s right. I don’t think these stories will change anything. Nobody thinks it will happen to them. My tale of my 21st birthday isn’t something to be proud of, but I can remember it in entirety. I did get pretty drunk and spent the entire next day puking, but I think I handled it a little more responsibly than other people do. It’s a scary thing to worry about in the future!
I happened to be lucky in the fact that it was spring break when I turned 21 and unlike most of my friends I stayed at school. I did go out and drink fairly heavily, but I has not fed shots all night either. I have however probably been lucky not to have had alcohol poisoning bad enough to kill me. When I was 20 I blew a .23 and was fairly functional. No, I wasn’t driving, it was for an underage ticket. I think unless the whole culture around drinking changes, these stories will always be around. Where I grew up drinking was a sport the more you could drink the cooler you were. I think feeding people shots, after they are clearly 3 sheets to the wind should be punishable. After having done this and had it done on to. I now hate seeing people do it, or having it done to them.
hey Kristi..I don’t remember my 21st birthday..lol it was so long ago. I do know I didn’t get drunk. I don’t even think we went anywhere. If I remember correctly, it was just another day. I think it’s sad what happens to these kids. My brother turns 21 this year and I’ve been down his throat since he turned 19, hmph
i celebrated mine at home with a baby who had chickenpox’s. yahoo. i really don’t think it will deter anyone from overdoing it on their big 21.
i celebrated my 21st at my parents house. we had a huge party there and people were able to stay if they needed to or get a sober ride home. we had a bonfire and food/drinks/games. it was a lot more fun than getting wasted at a bar. oh, my boyfriend at the time (now my husband) is four months younger than me so that was another reason i stayed at my house to celebrate!
i don’t think any of these horrible stories will deter anyone from celebrating in the bar or drinking in excess. people just need to be smart – but sometimes that is asking a lot. good post. sorry i’m so late commenting!