Drinking Age

It turns into the forbidden fruit, that when teenagers start consuming alcohol mainly forced by the fact that it is something they are not supposed to do. This temptation, in a combination with all the hiding and sneaking, takes away the clear mind of the teenager while consuming the alcohol. And apart from the 'Forbidden Fruit' standpoint, it always better to inform young people about everything out there instead of just saying "No"? It is like raising children. It almost never works when you say: "Don't do that!" But when you let the child know that this "No" has a lot more underneath it than just two simple letters. Explaining the reason why gives not only a certain security that the child is going to obey, but also educates the child and teaches her/him some responsibility. Although this analogy might not entirely describe the situation with young adolescence, it is pretty close. I think that exactly this fact should make us alert. Should the twenty-year olds be turned into small kids waiting on mom and dad to leave the house so that they can do all the fun things, no matter what? perceived alcohol as a secondary unit at a party or a gathering. The primary unit for a good time, or a party, was the people present, types of conversations, music and dancing. The surprising or even shocking thing for me was when I realized that the factors that indicated a good time and environment for me are of almost no importance to most American young adults I have met. Their indicating factors for a good party is the amount and type of alcohol present and of course the amount and type of alcohol consumed. Then I realized that what would be labeled as immature or even stupid as a behavior at a gathering in my country would be labeled as "cool" here. For a moment I even got fooled by teenager's behavior and seriously thought that they deserve that law, since I already was sure they didn't know how to deal with alcohol. But then the chicken and the egg question crossed my mind. Maybe they handle alcohol so immaturely because of the fact that they are not allowed to experiment with it and learn that way.