Drinking alcohol is a privilege that comes with a lot of risks and consequences if not done properly. That being said, there should be a designated age at which a young adult can legally start drinking. However, growing up in this generation, I believe that the age of 21 is much too old to begin to be “allowed” to make these types of decisions.

Because of the bad stigma that comes with drinking underage, most parents think it’s a terrible idea to start at age 18. However, it’s those parents that are the most out of touch with reality. At 18, citizens are allowed to vote, enlist in the army, decide what school to spend $50,000 a year on, buy tobacco, permanently ink their body with a tattoo but they can’t make the decision whether to consume an alcoholic drink or not. Meanwhile, the legal drinking age in a lot of European countries is 18 years old. Regardless, the majority of high schoolers are drinking, and that isn’t something that is going to stop. It’s been that way since my parents grew up, but the only difference is that, then, it was legal. My mom always tells me of the times she’d go to parties in high school and casually sip on a beer, hardly getting buzzed, because there was no pressure to get drunk as quickly as possible.

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I have seen kids exposed to alcohol at the age of 13. I didn’t have my first real drinking experience until I was 16. Reflecting back, this was a little too young, and I unfortunately didn’t handle the situation properly and I had to deal with the consequences. After my 18th birthday, I became a little more involved with alcohol, but learned how to handle my limitations. Even though I was technically an adult, technically in the eyes of the law, I had to be secretive and sneaky if I wanted a glass of wine. How does that make sense? I’d have to pay others who were over 21 (or had fake IDs) to buy me some extremely cheap alcohol and then put into water bottles so it wasn’t noticeable entering the house party. Once at the party, I’d have to drink as fast as I could, before either the cops came or someone found my stash. It was an unhealthy competition among myself and those at the party. You didn’t want to be the drunkest at the party, but you also couldn’t handle the high school stupidity sober (an art that took a long time to master). Luckily for me, I was incredibly open with my parents about everything, and openly drank at home, learning to control my drinking in a safe environment.

Drinking early comes with responsibilities and being in a safe environment can cushion the consequences and ease through the learning. Trust me, college teaches you nothing about how to handle alcohol. In the end, parents really do know best, and it truly could make a difference if they were around during the process.