I walk down the hallways of my school every day, hearing and saying so many things, like "Hey, what's going on?" and remarks congratulating many people on many things. I see a sophomore in his newly acquired Marlboro jacket, earned from gathering Marlboro cigarette points (his lungs must be shot after smoking that many packs for a jacket), toss a can of chewing tobacco to another (or dip, as we call it). I hear a girl ask for a "butt "from a guy, willing to give her one and a light. I hear the occasional talk of drugs or buys going on, but most of all you hear the wild stories of drinking. The Saturday night stories are so infamous that the murmur that runs on and on about who drank more than whom, where the party was, and who bought and brought the stuff. Stories were told about many people's embarrassing actions - whether it be diving down the stairs, coming onto girls or running wild through the streets of the town.

How does almost eighty-five percent of the school get sucked into the drinking life? Is it peer pressure or is it rebellion that the new generation must do what is not allowed? This may all be caused by the environment the teenagers live in where they see so many influential people doing it. The impressions come from parents to kids, TV to kids, ads to kids, kids to kids and, of course, stars to kids. The influential surroundings which kids look up to include drinking (whether it is legal or not). I have seen and heard about the many situations including the O.J. and vodka mix on the class trip, or the binge drinking. Is there some rule which says that if you drink, your popularity will skyrocket? Why can the parents not figure out what is going on, and how can the school not know? Do they not know? Or are they just ignoring it?

There have been so many freshmen who walk into high school feeling strong about not drinking and avoiding drugs, but before their sophomore year ends, it is all over. They have been pulled in, like a pit of quick sand. Is it the glamour and the prestige earned from drinking? If it is, that is a joke of a reason to drink. Is it the older brothers and sisters who force the younger crowd to drink, or is it a parent who starts it? Could it be a combination of these things? Where has the push to drink come from? Over the later part of my school years I have heard the stories of drinking and the wild sensation, where so many laugh with them. Why, I do not know. Then you hear the whispering and the feeling that they are laughing at you, not with you. Why is alcohol such a factor in the social life of so many teenagers? I cannot answer that question, though I wish I could. ?