Why I Would Never Take The Straight-Edged Pledge

I bet many of you who are looking at the title are probably wondering if I'm a drunk party girl. Gotta love stereotypes.One of the many cool things about entering your 20s is soon being able to legally drink. This is an area of controversy because some people think booze and liqour is the worst thing that you can ever consume, and of course, there are those who completely overdo it. However, there is no middle ground to drinking, which really annoys me.
For those of you who don't know what the term straight-edge means, its basically pledging to remain liquor and drug free for life. I can promise on a stack of Bibles that I will never turn to crack (Crack is whack, I feel ya Whitney), or smoke like Carrie Bradshaw. However, drinking is another story.
I don't drink much now, and drinking until I'm blacked out and smashed simply isn't my thing. However, I don't see the problem in drinking in moderation. For example, drinking a glass of wine, or having one drink then stopping. I think that's perfectly okay to do, because I'm drinking but not in ultra extreme portions.
Many young people often have troubles setting limits, and when they go to college, they are often drinking about six or seven times more than that. I think that alcohol, like sex and all other fun adult privileges, is something that should be taken with responsibility, as well as knowing your limit. I don't judge those who like to get drunk or smashed, but I do tend to think that they are rather humorous. If you do set a limit for yourself, like I am doing, you're making sure that you're staying out of harm's way, and you're making sure that you're not doing something that you wouldn't otherwise regret later.
I hate it when my friends diss me when I say I want to drink in moderation. Some judge me because they think that I'm partaking in unhealthy actions, or doing something bad. I can see the concern if I was overdoing it, or planning to get smashed. But, since I'm not I don't see the problem of having a drink if I know that I'm going to be okay.
At the end of the day, our decisions to drink or not to drink are simply left to us. Up until about now, I thought that I never wanted to even touch liquor. However, after recent consideration, I feel like it's something that if you do it right, you'll be just fine.

(Finding My Voice is not condoning you all to get drunk or do reckless activities...)

A Teenager's Relationship With the Bottle

Just picture it. You're sixteen years old. You're going to a party for the first time. Someone hands you a red solo cup. What inhabits it is unknown. All of a sudden things become fuzzy. You begin to lose memory of what had happened. All of sudden you black out. You wake up from this daze and you're in a place you can't remember. Soon, this becomes routine for you, and you begin to do this on a weekly basis. 

This is the case for millions of teens. Some start older then 16. Some start younger. In a recent survey from SADD, 26.4 percent of people ages 12-20 have had an alcoholic beverage sometime in their lifetime. That means a 1/4 of society's teenagers have had a sip of alcohol on their lips. So, we begin to wonder what makes this statistic happen. Is it the fault of parental figure, or the fault of the teenage. It is similar to the argument that many psychologists make, nature vs nurture? 

There are many health aspects to drinking. When you're younger you tend not to think of the effects that you experience later in life of the decisions that you make in a single moment. Drinking is one of them. Alcohol when used right is an okay spice to life. However, when used in excess or too early in life, that's when the problems arise. That's when the blackouts happen, the hangovers, and the other negative things happen. Too much alcohol can lead to liver damage, and perhaps alcohol poisoning which can be deadly. So my question is why do so many teenagers enjoy the aspect of a drink at night? 

We hear it in health class. Just say no. It's on pencils, and engraved into our brains when we are little. However when we're teenagers the point in our lives when we rebel against everything our parents and teachers teach us, we begin to drink. It's an aspect of the forbidden fruit, when a parental figure says no, why should we listen?

Well, the aspect of the forbidden fruit does come into play. However, I believe that alcoholic beverages are similar to being able to take your license test. You have to reach a level of maturity or otherwise you begin to abuse the powers that come along with it. Sometimes, too much alcoholic beverages can lead to one thing. So, I vow to not take a drink unless it's legal. When I do drink, I do plan to drink in moderation, because I want to be able to say 'no' when a guy wants to have sex with me, and not have to worry about what stupid things that people took pictures of me doing. It's a decision I hope to be responsible, however as I look on social media sites I see several of my peers enjoying what comes in the bottle. It's their choice, and I respect it. However, I do ask them to respect mine in return.

Source: "SADD Statistics." SADD Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.