the High Life Generation

Is it just a marker of our generation, or is it that maybe we've just become a little boring? Is it just my group of friends, or is every group of early 20 somethings everywhere unable to have a good time without alcohol? Do people in towns I've never been to have groups of kids in their early 20s that can find a good time without getting loaded? Or has our generation become a generation that will only be defined by the amount of PBR we consumed? Am I the only one thats just a little bored these days? Am I out of line by trying to find ways of having a good time that don't involve sitting in bar's or living rooms watching the intelligence of my friends decline?

I’ve never been drunk in my entire life. In less than a month I will be turning 22 years old, and aside from what I’ve gathered by witnessing those around me, I have absolutely no idea what it feels like to be intoxicated. And granted, it seems like a biased argument to be knocking on alcohol when I am not a consumer. But, this is a serious topic, and I swear is not just a clever way for me, the Sober Guy, to bitch about having to drive everywhere. It just seems like I use to have a lot better stories, and a lot better time, when going out and doing something didn't ALWAYS involve drinkin' some brews. I mean, is drinking a tall boy and playing that fucking bowling game in the back corner of the bar still that much fun? Can we really have this same drunken-half-brained argument about music taste over and over again? I mean, it sure as shit doesn’t mean anything sober, does it really mean anything when beer is introduced to the situation.

I’ve been told by many that alcohol makes you feel good and allows you to enjoy even the most mundane events. While I have no tangible proof of this notion, I’ll concede to it just because it seems to be the general consensus of the general drinking culture. But, why drink to make boring situations more enjoyable? Why not find new situations that are enjoyable without alcohol? No more than 3 years ago, all my friends and myself would meet at a local parking lot and play Ultimate Frisbee until the nights end. And while I’m sure a few of my friends were probably drunk at the time, the activities of the night did not center around the amount of alcohol we could consume. It seems as though we don’t make plans anymore that don’t either involve going some place that sells alcohol, or stopping by a gas station on the way to wherever we are going, to, you guess it, buy some beer. Not too long ago, a group of friends and myself were going to see a movie on its opening night. One friend wanted to pick up a flask to fill with alcohol so she could get loaded while watching the movie! Seriously, how is being able to chug whiskey in a movie theater going to make Hannibal Rising any less shitty? If being drunk is the only way to enjoy that stupid fucking bowling game, then why bother playing it?

Most drinkers usually tell me that because I don’t drink, I don’t "get it." I guess I never will. In the past my friends have shared emotional bonds by simply sitting on a back porch somewhere drinking beers, or tossing rocks by the train tracks while sipping on a 40. I guess I never will “get it,” simply because I don’t understand why beer makes that situation that much more emotional, and bonding, and enjoyable. Are we such a stale generation that we have to have a beer to loosen up to do anything? Are we so incapable of talking about our lives to one another that we have to chug a beer, simply to be able to open up to a pal?

I’m not dumping on anyone who drinks. My decision not to drink has not given me any kind of condescending tone towards anyone who drinks. You’re decision to drink matters to me about as much as the color shirt you are wearing. I just wonder if there is more to being 22 than bars, keg parties and funneling 3 MGD’s.

Sometimes I wonder if we are a generation that will be known as the High Life generation. When I look back on my parents generation, at least they were known for their drugs. And while we have our drugs too, and I would much rather sit around watching my friends chug some beers as opposed to snorting lines, I still wonder if we look just a little lame. There is nothing more pathetic looking than a smashed, blacked out, barley conscious drunk (1). I know alcohol has always been present in America, but you looking back on 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s youth, the beer belly isn’t nearly as fucking big. Every generation has its defining crutch. I’m pretty sure that ours is Coors Light.

And maybe I am a little off by claiming this is a problem with our culture. Maybe it is just my friends; Maybe this problem is simply an Atlanta thing. But still, I wonder if in every city, no matter where you go and no matter what kind of kids, whether it be punk rockers, fashion fucks, jocks, thugs or geeks, I wonder if all there is to do on a Friday night is to get "fuckin' drunk!"

=======================================
1) You know EXACTLY what face I am talking
about: When a person is so drunk that they give the exact
same expression to people they’ve never met that they give
their best friend. That blank, utterly confused look. You know
in old cartoons where the cartoon would zoom inside a
characters head and their brain would replaced by a mouse
running on a wheel? Well this is the face when the mouse has
run himself into the ground, fallen face first into the ground,
just after vomiting from over-excursion. It’s the face when that
bright idea bulb has burnt the fuck out.