I have to reply to the above, since I know a few people from the UK, and also have known a man from the UK with that 'UK' attitude that passed away at the age of forty five.
First of all, I want you to understand that I am not judgmental about your opinion, and I think you made a good and honest post. I am not one that doesn't think a little alcohol isn't ever appropriate, I'll have a drink myself on occasion, and I used to think that partying with my friends was the best part of life when I was your age.
But, as I got older, and I watched people around me, I realized that doing what they did to have fun really wasn't, and that hanging out with people who drank and smoked dope was something I was expected to do more than something I enjoyed, and that people were filling their time with this activity mostly because they were bored and hadn't discovered any of the real fun in life - learning, creating things, making a good home, having someone to love, feeling the satisfaction of accomplishment.
I know too many people whose lives actually were shortened by drugs and alcohol, and too many that took the attitude you are thinking of committing yourself too that never found any real happiness or real satisfaction. I hope you will reconsider as you grow, I hope you will take into consideration that a bottle of anything won't substitute for a really pretty girl who really wants a good man to live with, not a little boy.
I ask you to try this experiment. Go to the same parties with the same friends, but don't drink a couple of times. Get soda water or something else that looks like a drink if you have to, and then watch and see how uninteresting and foolish the rest of your friends start to look after a few hours, watch what they laugh at that really isn't funny without being drunk, watch how their reflexes fail, how sloppy and foolish they actually become.
Then, think about how you must look.
The worst part of it is, years later, you will go back to the same pubs and see some of the same people that never went anywhere else, never grew at all, and don't have a thing to show for themselves that they didn't have when they were eighteen.
These are just the facts of life, and I hope they don't seem condescending.
First of all, I want you to understand that I am not judgmental about your opinion, and I think you made a good and honest post. I am not one that doesn't think a little alcohol isn't ever appropriate, I'll have a drink myself on occasion, and I used to think that partying with my friends was the best part of life when I was your age.
But, as I got older, and I watched people around me, I realized that doing what they did to have fun really wasn't, and that hanging out with people who drank and smoked dope was something I was expected to do more than something I enjoyed, and that people were filling their time with this activity mostly because they were bored and hadn't discovered any of the real fun in life - learning, creating things, making a good home, having someone to love, feeling the satisfaction of accomplishment.
I know too many people whose lives actually were shortened by drugs and alcohol, and too many that took the attitude you are thinking of committing yourself too that never found any real happiness or real satisfaction. I hope you will reconsider as you grow, I hope you will take into consideration that a bottle of anything won't substitute for a really pretty girl who really wants a good man to live with, not a little boy.
I ask you to try this experiment. Go to the same parties with the same friends, but don't drink a couple of times. Get soda water or something else that looks like a drink if you have to, and then watch and see how uninteresting and foolish the rest of your friends start to look after a few hours, watch what they laugh at that really isn't funny without being drunk, watch how their reflexes fail, how sloppy and foolish they actually become.
Then, think about how you must look.
The worst part of it is, years later, you will go back to the same pubs and see some of the same people that never went anywhere else, never grew at all, and don't have a thing to show for themselves that they didn't have when they were eighteen.
These are just the facts of life, and I hope they don't seem condescending.