Imagine getting married and not being able to make a toast or receive a toast of alcohol.

 

When I was 18-19-20 I thought 18 year olds ought to be able to drink. After all if we were old enough to go to war then, by god, we ought to be able to drink.

But a funny thing happened about my 21st birthday. Those 18 year old drunks got to be very annoying! Not to say I was mature by 21, that really hasn't happened yet, but they just didn't have the experience(s) to fully appreciate what they should or should not be doing. Unfortunately that meant they did a lot of thing did things that got people hurt.

I also found out that you didn't have to get a girl drunk to get laid, they wanted it just as much if not more than you did and alcohol only deadened the sensations.

Everyone goes thru the "I gotta get drunk to have any fun stage" but if it starts later people tend to be more responsible and less stupid things happen or they happen in a more controlled environment so less damage is done to them and others. Plus studies have shown you are less likely to end up a drunk if you begin drinking later. The ones that begin drinking at 14 to look/feel older have a much better chance to be an alcoholic than those that begin later.

18 year olds think they are grown ups, but they aren't in anything but size. It takes quite a few more years before you realize that. The "I gotta get drunk to have any fun" stage is much shorter and less severe when older people discover drink.

I have a friend who woke up in a ditch one morning and just stopped drinking cold turkey, but that is a rarity. He'd been drinking and raising hell since he was 14. He still looks like he was rode hard and put away wet. Alcohol takes a toll on your skin.

 

I say raise the limit to 25 for bars/restaurants/etc. Can't stand a lot of these punk 21'ers in the bars. Always looking to brawl

If you want to drink in your own house, then it should be 18.

 

Im 20 now, but since like junior year in high school my friends and I would enjoy having drinks and stuff, just hangin out in the basement. When i look back on it, it was some hella good times, prolly the best ive had so far, but yeah the shit we thought was funny or cool to us then is kinda weak to me now. I more or less just enjoy sitting by a fire instead of shooting eachother with airsoft guns.

 

Sense of humor is your friend. Look into it.

 

That's exactly what happend when my brother in law got married...they were both 20 at the time.

 

Basically if you can get your head blown off for this country you should be able to have a beer. That being said I don't think you should be able to vote, drink, be drafted until your 18 I also don't think you should be able to drive until 18 nor tried as an adult until 18. 18 is the generally honored age of personal responsibility. Until then you shouldn't be able to do those things are are adult like with the supervision of an adult.

 

18 might be the time honored age of majority, but that doesn't make it so. You can't just pick an age, unless you pick very high, and say at this age people will be mature enough to make responsible decisions. Everyone matures at a different rate and although there are a few kids who are very mature at 18, most don't actually make it until their early 20's.

18 is way too young to know enough to make good decisions &/or be responsible for you actions. At that age you are still a kid in adult clothes. At that age you don't know what you don't know. You don't even know enough to ask the right questions.

My 21 year old son just basically told me all I wrote above as he apologized for some of the grief he's put me thru. That was prompted by his having to run with a younger crowd all summer as he took an externship in Florida. He recognized himself in those kids and was appalled at their thought processes. He said he was very embarrassed at many of his choices and the things he'd done.

And who says a toast has to be alcoholic? What's so special about alcohol that it is required? A toast isn't about the drink, it's about the sentiment.

 

18 yr olds are idiots. Talk to one and see what I mean. Most people don't start to grow a brain until they hit 25. Some never do.

I look back at what a moron I was at 18, the dirt mustache, the mullet, the Jesse Jackson for president thing, and the 15 inch woofers in the car blasting "The Ghetto" by Too Short. (I was from the burbs)

Some will tell you I am still an idiot. Think of how bad it must have been back then.

 

Just some comments in retrospect:

Grew up in NY when the drinking age was 18. Than meant you could get into almost any local bar at 16. With that being said I do not remember fights or other issues. It seems as though we did a lot of dancing and if you were lucky the normal teen things. The only bad part was if you were from CT (lived right on the border of NY / CT) the CT police would set up road blocks every Friday and Saturday.

We seemed to know when to stop as if you came home drunk you never wanted to face your parents. Also, most of us had a midnight curfew.

The change seems not to be with the kids as much as it is with the parents not wanting to take a stronger role in their children