Anonymous, North Shore Teenage Perspective
What is it like being a sober kid on the North Shore?
Well to start off, it’s pretty messed up. All of the people around you or at least 95% are drunk every weekend, who knows probably high too, and despite that it is illegal to drink under 21, you are the one that is looked at differently. People either idolize you for having your own morals, not caring, and doing what you want, or they think that you’re unsocial, think you’re better than them, or blatantly a loser. Why it’s so messed up? Is because everyone knows who is drinking and who’s not. The parents know, the teachers can tell, and even the law knows half the time. But because we live on the North Shore where there is no shortage of money, no one will do anything about it, parents are the ones buying the alcohol, teachers won’t speak up or punish the kids, and officers won’t even be too harsh with these over privileged kids because of the fact there’s soooo much money involved with everything. That’s what everything around me personally is like, but what it’s like to be the 5% that doesn’t drink is different. You’re generally not going out every Friday and Saturday night to party, you’re not getting 500 likes on Instagram or Facebook or you’re not posting 300 second stories, you’re watching them. It hits everyone differently, if you can be strong enough to say no, screw you, I have a future and I won’t mess it up, I’ll earn my way to college and not have mommy and daddy pay my way in, then good for you, you know yourself and you have it right. But on the flipside there’s always the kid who will get pressured into it because they want to be cool, or the kid who wishes they were in those photos, or wishing they got the invite, and that’s when it’s hard, hard to be the one left out for doing the right thing. What is meant by you’re the one being left it is you’re not invited to parties and it’s tough and it’s sad that you’re not there just because you don’t drink. If you do go to parties, then generally what you’re thinking is, “This is crazy”, “alcohol everywhere”, “fun when beer isn’t being spilled on you”, but most of all you feel pity for all of the kids that have to drink or smoke to have fun, because at the end of the night you’ll go home and know you did the right thing even if you didn’t want to at the time, and who knows what they’ll go home thinking.