Alcohol

My name is Molly Rowland, and I am an alcoholic. Come on, me? A chocoholic, maybe.... No, what I really want to talk about at this very moment is the drinking age here in Austria. It's 16 years old, and I find that to be way too young. People may like to think that the younger you start drinking the more responsible you are about it, but I find that to be a falsehood. No, I'm not saying that they should bump the drinking age up to 21. America has the drinking age wrong as well.

On my way home from a friends this evening, I enjoyed riding the bus with 8 or so kids that looked to be about 16. They were rowdy, drunk, and just plain annoying. It's 10pm on a Thursday night, really?! I got out of the bus only to find broken glass everywhere, and young kids pulling back a few brewskies. As I walk by one boy is kicking bottles of broken glass around. Not at all dangerous when one is extremely intoxicated.

As I wait to cross the street a few teens decide to ignore the traffic sign and walk in the middle of the street, despite the fact that there were cars coming. He holds up his hands, laughing, and says something along the lines of "hit me" as he grins at his friends. Really hilarious, if you want to end up dead. This also brings up the issue of being able to drink alcohol in public...

So here's what it boils down to:

A) I feel 16 year olds are too young to be legally allowed to drink. I realize that adults can also act just as stupid when they're drunk, but they tend to do that more in the privacy of their own homes or in bars. The drunk idiots I see outside are usually kids.
B) Drinking should not be allowed on busses or outside. All it does is create an environment that is dangerous for those drinking and the people around them.

There really is no right drinking age, but if I could choose:
I would go for the legal drinking age being 19. At that point one is in college-or at least out of high school, and should be able to act responsibly. Generally speaking, there is a huge difference between 16-year-olds and 19-year-olds. Those few years do tend to make a difference in the maturity of individuals.

Ok, I will admit it. I drank tonight. But then again, I wasn't the one standing in front of a bus, waving my hands saying, "hit me." Oh kids...the reason I could never be a high school teacher....