KCTCS - Elizabethtown

Underage Drinking.

I had my first sip of alcohol when I was only in the 8^th grade, as a dare at my friend’s slumber party. Everyone watched me as I poured the shot of Wild Turkey, held my nose, and threw it back. I remember the burn I felt as I gagged the whiskey down my throat. My friends laughed as tears formed in my eyes and I tried not to spew the vile tasting liquid all over the floor. I couldn’t understand what all of the hype was about alcohol and getting drunk. Why would anyone enjoy drinking something so disgusting?

                 When I became a freshman in high school, the hype about getting drunk grew even bigger. I couldn’t go anywhere without hearing stories about how drunk people were the night before, or the big party that was coming up that weekend. I never thought I would be one to fall in to the peer pressure, but eventually it happened.

The first party I ever went to was an upperclassman’s from John Hardin. I hardly knew anyone there, but I figured I would go to see what it was all about. When I first arrived, everyone was dancing, being loud and seemed to be having a great time, as I awkwardly stood on the wall next to my best friend. That’s about the time a guy I knew from school walked up to me and handed me my first mixed alcoholic drink. I was skeptical at first, but falling into the peer pressure, I took a drink. To my surprise it really wasn’t that bad, nothing like I had remembered from that slumber party dare just a year earlier. I took another drink, and then another, and before I knew it my cup was empty and I was pouring myself a second cup. I remember first realizing that I was feeling the effects of the alcohol. My body seemed to be floating, and almost numb to a point. Suddenly, I turned into a social butterfly. I felt like a different person, I was dancing with people I had never met before, talking to people I would normally never talk to, it was awesome. I finally understood, and I was hooked.