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I have just turned 20 years old and am having the time of my life. I surround myself with people who I like to believe are true to themselves and what they believe in. I personally do not drink, smoke, or partake in any drug use, however I do make appearances at locals parties. At these parties I see the drunk girls getting younger and younger. I have a few friends who are about 17 who tell me drinking is lame, stupid, even juvenile, yet I see them "hammered" at every party. The sad thing about this is I see a lot of these as beautiful, intelligent people, but they degrade themselves by giving in to what they believe is they "cool" thing to do. Most of these girls have had many pregnancy scares, date rape, and many will not graduate on time.

I get a lot of praise for being sober, but I also get a lot of criticism on how I am not living my life right. I just do not understand what is going on here. Alcoholism, drugs and basic partying are plaguing the nations youth. There are twelve year old tweakers in my neighborhood, this is ridiculous. I know fourteen year old girls who,after only losing their virginity three months ago, have already had four sex partners and two pregnancy scares. When i was 15-16 some kids at my school partied, now i talk to my 15 year old sister who claims that there are only a few people who do not party.

The kids blame the neighborhoods for not having any fun stuff for teens to do. They blame their parents for letting them do it. Who is really to blame here? I to this day have never touched a single drop of alcohol, never really needed to. I am trying to set a good example for my sister, who happens to be one of the only virgins who do not drink at her school. What can be done, we talk to them till they don't want to hear it but they get mad and do it because "my dad/mom yelled at me for drinking, I'm gonna drink now". Honestly something needs to be done because as the underage drinking rate grows, the high school drop out/ pregnancy rate is growing. I don;t want to have to pick up my 15 year old sister drunk at a party with a bunch of sleazy guys, it really worries me, it should worry you too.

Learn more about this author, Brandy West.
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