<p>
</p>
<p>■■■■■…no response needed, just close the thread now.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that any one person will sway your opinion with a single comment – though if anyone should drive the point home to you, it would be DagnyT’s response.</p>
<p>With that said, however, I must second whoever made the observation that you seem to be a terribly insecure person. You ask a group of anonymous yet overachieving students whether or not you should indulge in a relatively dangerous activity, but introduce your motivations by listing your accomplishments in school? </p>
<p>Is the fact that you are managing a 4.0 GPA as a freshman in high school supposed to indicate that you are more intelligent than most kids, and therefore will be safer under the influence? Or are you suggesting that your “hard work” this year entitles you to spend the summer making deliberately bad choices?</p>
<p>There were a lot of very bright, very intelligent kids in my freshman class. There are far fewer bright and intelligent students graduating. That gap? It’s filled almost entirely with the ones who started partying early, started drinking, smoking, got careless and lazy and lost what they easily could have achieved. And what will happen to them? Nothing too bad. They’re all going to decent colleges, except for the occasional hang-over, none have gotten sick from their activities. The alcohol, so far, has had no lasting impact on their well-being.</p>
<p>When they started drinking, however, they set off down a long road of poor-decision making, of rationalizing foolish behavior. You keep asking about the effect of alcohol on the body… that’s not where you should be the most concerned. It was the impact that it had on their personality, on their ego, that was the most damaging. Whether they realized it or not, they have wasted a lot of their potential, and that is something they can never get back.</p>
<p>High school is stressful. We get that because we live it, just like you. But it speaks something to someone’s character when they struggle through all the daily ********, stay sober, and still make it out on top. It’s not a race, it’s an endurance contest.</p>
<p>Here’s a hint which will benefit you for the rest of your scholastic career: don’t define yourself by the grades you receive, the number of extracurriculars you are involved in, or the amount of time spent sorting cans at the Food Bank. Your passions and your dedication to making a tremendous difference, changing your life as well as the lives of others… that is a central component of who you are, not your GPA or officer status in the Stop World Hunger club you half-heartedly joined.</p>
<p>Scuba’s post should be printed out and distributed around the world. Any advice after that will only pale in comparison.</p>
<p>Edited because scuba wins</p>
<p>Scuba, I agree with your post. Generally, I don’t think drinking really goes against what you said.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Good point.. why did I bring it up in my OP? Probably subconciously for a few reasons:
- To allow for the argument that it will cause my grades to slip
- To display responsibility or perseverance
- To show that I do a lot and need a break</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Can you say that drinking is what <em>caused</em> a slip in grades? You say it has no lasting impact on their well-being.. okay, can I take this as a contradiction to the idea that moderate drinking will impede your success?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Remove “stay sober” from that and it’s just as true. You could replace it with a million other “positive” attributes like “eating healthily” or “acting in the name of god”. They’re nice but they aren’t necessary in winning the endurance contest.</p>
<p>I’d like to point out that my grades have gone up since I started partying more. As has my overall happiness/self-esteem.</p>
<p>Just don’t drink too much.</p>
<p>You’re right. Remove “stay sober” and substitute some other “good behavior,” and what I said would still hold true. But you were asking for advice on drinking, not whether or not you should swing by Taco Bell on the way home from school.</p>
<p>My problem with teenage drinking lies in the fact that you’re fourteen, fifteen years old and already declaring that you “need a break” and are choosing to accomplish this escapism through the consumption of a psychoactive drug. But if you’re making that sort of decision now, how do you plan to manage stress in the future? You seem to be ambitious and hard-working, but trust me – and I believe anybody else on this board a few years older will back me up on this – the stress only increases as you go through high school. You claim that straight-As demonstrate “responsibility and perseverance,” yet you are arguing with people that as soon as the general burden of school is off of your shoulders, you are justified in allowing for destructive decision making.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I don’t understand where you saw in my reply a “contradiction to the idea that moderate drinking will impede [one’s] success.” The same students I was referring to who started partying and drinking early were the ones who fell through the cracks and are no longer living up to their initial potential. </p>
<p>If you are the type of student you are busy telling everyone that you are, precocious enough to begin taking college courses at age 15, why does this idea of not being the best that you can be not horrify you? It was not the alcohol which led my peers to underperforming, it was the accompanying practicing of poor judgment and rationalization of bad decisions which undermined their success.</p>
<p>I take this topic so seriously because I’ve seen what sort of damage a lifestyle such as this can cause. One of my closest friends was top of my class all during freshmen and sophomore year, fell into drugs and alcohol by junior year, and came dangerously close to permanently screwing up her life. She’s still intelligent – reads more than I ever could, 1600 M/V SAT, brilliant writer – but she has managed to alienate so many teachers and mentors and lose so many friends along the way. She’ll be successful, but not as successful as she could be. Why risk that?</p>
<p>I feel bad for you, because I think you are hurting for attention and have some true self-esteem problems. You’ve managed to generate 3+ pages of attention, but you are still acting as if you are waiting for someone to say the magic words which will completely change your mind. Most of the people taking time to reply to your post are writing because they are concerned for you, not because they are looking to enter into some sort of petty debate. </p>
<p>Set some goals, and try to live up to them. Walking across the stage at graduation and being able to say that you overcame the odds and never turned to alcohol feels really good, better than you might believe right now. In the end, you are responsible for your own behavior – and if you are truly that mature and intelligent, you would realize this.</p>
<p>Don’t get hurt, don’t do something you’ll regret (hook up with people, dance nude, etc.), and have fun! But use drinking only for fun, not for escape. That’s how you become an alcoholic.</p>
<p>I would also like to add that I have partied with our school’s valedictorian.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Starting to get some credits early doesn’t make me immune to making “bad” decisions in my social life. And starting this thread shows that I am not horrified of alcohol.. why should I be? As far as I can tell, most of what you post, though eloquent, is kind of focused on semantics and the stigma attached to underage drinking. I have no idea why “walking across the stage at graduation and being able to say that I never drank alcohol” could be rewarding–that’s what I’m looking for someone to explain to me.</p>
<p>So far, the cons of drinking:
- Possibility of addiction
- (Negligible?) health effects
- Other risks (drunk driving, date rape, etc)</p>
<p>The pros:
- I want to
- Get an idea of my tolerance levels before going to college
- It would be fun</p>
<p>But yeah, thanks for the responses everyone, especially Scuba.</p>
<p>Edit.. specific question:
Is she an anomaly? Does this happen to most, or even more than one percent of teenage drinkers? I’m starting to see where you’re coming from, but couldn’t something like this happen to someone who starts alcohol at any age?</p>
<p>Dude we could post all the valid reasons there are not to drink somke etc. but in the end you will still do what you want to do. It sounds like you just want attention to me. Do what you want but if you get caught you could blow your chances of geting into a good school.</p>
<p>Please don’t drink this summer. There is absolutely no good reason to drink. It is stupid and it can ruin your life.</p>
<p>First of all, if any party you go to gets busted by the police, or if you get caught and have to take a Breathalyzer test, you could go to juvie.</p>
<p>Second of all, alcohol has crazy effects on the brain. It dulls your senses and makes your reaction time slower, just to name a few side effects. Not only that, even if you don’t drink, if you get into a car with someone who drinks, they could have an accident and you or someone else could die. </p>
<p>Also, there is a chance that you could become addicted to alcohol. Alcoholism is a disease that is so hard to “cure.” End it before it begins by choosing not to drink. </p>
<p>Alcohol is not worth the possibilty of dying. Especially for you, who is just a high school freshman and gets straight As. You have your whole life ahead of you. Don’t ruin it by making a stupid decision to drink.</p>
<p>If you need anything else, please feel free to send me an email.</p>
<p>Good luck. :)</p>
<p>don’t drink at all.</p>
<p>learn how to play quarters</p>
<p>Despite your impressive resume, you’re obviously not happy with your life. The first reason for drinking you gave was “numbing pain” - are you THAT depressed? What do you need to escape so badly that you’re willing to put your future at risk?</p>
<p>You need to get help. Drinking won’t solve any of your problems - it will just create new problems to escape. Please, don’t go down that path. Too many people have thrown their lives away.</p>
<p>Is my friend an “anomaly”? In some regards (test scores, general intelligence), I suppose she is – but her situation underscores the point that I was trying to make clear (and that you seem to be catching on to): those poor lifestyle choices, which first emerged as she fell in with the wrong crowd, came very close to ruining her future. The bad decisions started early, adn thus followed her through the rest of high school. She had everything in the world going for her, and the fact that she now has any less for such a stupid, preventable reason is a damn shame.</p>
<p>I was never trying to assert that you were scared of alcohol or immune to bad decisions, I was pondering why the prospect of not living up to this tremendous amount of potential you seem to have did not frighten you. </p>
<p>And my last piece, before I turn in for the night: Just as you do not understand why graduating having stayed sober during all of high school would feel rewarding, I do not understand why you would enjoy any less. I haven’t been sheltered, my access to such substances has hardly been restricted. There were plenty of temptations – plenty of my friends drink or smoke pot, I’ve been on several trips to Europe where alcohol was very much available. </p>
<p>Having pledged to myself during freshman year to maintain such abstinence, though, overcoming the temptations, even in the face of other obstacles, has simply been a rewarding experience. Some kids enter college knowing what their tolerance level might be, I’m entering college knowing that if I can handle X amount of stress and troubles sober, I can handle anything else thrown my way.</p>
<p>Our struggles, not our accomplishments, ultimately shape who we are.</p>
<p>The only thing dumber than being a sedentary drinker is being an athlete who drinks.</p>
<p>Yup, this is a forum full of nerdy people. As in, mature people. So whatever we say will sound more like what your parents would say than what your friends would say, probably. ^^</p>
<p>Look at your family members who drink, can they keep it under control and just have one or two drinks every once in a while or have they developed a habit? Genetics is a big part of how susceptible you are to addiction. I have one of each type in my parents so I’m not willing to take the risk, but if your parents/family members are the former then I would say go ahead, otherwise no.</p>
<p>no… do what you want.
IF your not sure about drinking, don’t do it…which it sounds like…but who am i to tell you…
You’ll pay for your actions, good or bad. Not me, not the next poster or Sally or Jill or Kim or Jason…you…
Its time to grow up, you’re not a little girl. This is you decision and no one here has the right to stop you.</p>
<p>because you won’t party when you’re drunk.
You’ll waste away, while you could be dancing with an extremely beautiful girl.
Girls don’t like drunk dudes.</p>
<p>*EDIT</p>
<p>VICE-VERSA</p>
<p>SORRY</p>
<p>legendofandrey- i thought the OP was a girl :P</p>
<p>and to the OP, do what you want. you don’t sound like you’re going to be convinced by our facts, so why did you even start this thread? :/</p>