This week marked a very important milestone in my life. Why? Because as of now, I am less than a half year away from my 21st birthday.
I know what you're thinking.
How could anyone be so excited to start drinking that they're counting down six months in advance? What kind of pathetic soul am I?
Quite simply, I'm a college student. See, I think it's silly to tell people between the ages of 18 and 21 that they're too young and immature to drink. If anything, people in this age group are the ones who could use a drink the most.
Think about it. People between the ages of 18 and 21 can generally be divided into three groups: college students, people who joined the workforce straight out of high school, and military servicemen.
College kids are stressed out for obvious reasons. There's always an exam coming up, and if there isn't, you're probably about to get one back. College students are always frantically writing papers, desperately hoping for a good grade.
More importantly, they know that if they don't get a good grade their future could be at stake. Maybe they'll lose a scholarship, maybe they won't get into the grad school of their choice, or maybe their grades will slip so low they won't be allowed to continue attending college.
Quite simply, it's a lot of stress. The kind of stress that could make someone really go for a beer.
Now, think about all the people between the ages of 18 and 21 who never went to college. They have it even worse. Think about it; there's a lot of reasons why someone wouldn't attend school.
Maybe they didn't have the money, maybe they didn't have the grades, or maybe they went for a semester and they just couldn't handle it. Or, in the harshest reality of all, maybe they had a child with their significant other, and they had to get a job in order to support their family.
In any of those cases, a young person is being faced with a difficult situation. A situation far more stressful than anything even the most dedicated college kid has to go through. As a result, there's a good chance these people, too, could go for an ice-cold brew right about now.
Finally, think about the people serving in the military. Admittedly, the argument of "if you can fight in a war, why can't you drink" is a bit clichéd, but that doesn't make it any less true. The people fighting wars for us are the bravest citizens our nation has. To tell them they cannot have a drink is just silly.
My point is this: people between 18 and 21 aren't as immature as they seem. They might be young, but in many cases they have maturity thrust upon them by the difficult decisions life forces them to make every day. With all the hard choices and difficult decisions they have to face on a regular basis, to tell people in this age group they can't legally have a drink just seems ridiculous to me.
In a few more months, I'll turn 21, and this will no longer be an issue for me, but even then I'll still believe in my heart that the drinking age should be 18. When young high school grads of all career paths can come together, have a few beers, and complain about how stressed out they are without fear of being arrested, that will be a great day for America.
E-mail: john.hugar@buffalo.edu
