Underage drinking

So, I have a health project that I have to do, due June 7. Of course I'm going to choose alcohol, since I feel it is such a problem in America's youth. It's actually a real disappointment for me to see these kids doing stupid things that they don't need to be doing, and I just want to shake them. I want to ask them, "What's your problem? Are you trying to kill yourself?" And of course you know that if I say that, I'll have no friends. But it really sucks, you know? Because you might hear of the things your friends do, and you want to help them, and by trying to help them you lose them. It's a vicious cycle. And then one day it happens--your friend gets into a car accident due to, you guessed it, drunk driving. Then you remember your friend at their funeral, and how you could have helped them but didn't, or you tried to and they shoved you away. And I bet there are people, teenagers, that could read this and are rolling their eyes, always thinking that it could never happen to them. Well, you're wrong. And being wrong in this case can get you something else.

Dead.

So my story for my project is going to be one that raises awareness, even if I get laughed at and rejected. Because what kind of friend would I be if I let a friend drink and then drive? A pretty poor one, that's what. I want to help. Some kids drink because they think their lives suck. Please! Before I began writing this, I read an entry from a man named Jason Torreano. He volunteered to go to Africa for, I believe, three months, and he described the things those kids go through. They have no food, no money, no shelter, sometimes no family. And America's teens think THEIR lives suck? I scoff at those who use that excuse to do something that is brainless. Face it--if you need to drink underage when you're fifteen, sixteen years old, get out. Get out of everyone's life, because you are useless. Did you know that kids who begin to drink underage (thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old) are four times more likely to be alcoholics when they grow up than children that don't? Guess what that statistic says?

It says you're in big trouble.