The moment I have been waiting for all of my life—21 years of life to be exact—was finally here. I could not wait to finally sit at a bar and watch soccer with a beer, gamble my earnings away, take advantage of happy hours, and basically become a real-life version of Samantha Jones.
When midnight struck, I was expecting 21 birthday shots celebrating one of the best milestones to make their way to my mouth, people cheering me on as I swallow 30 ounces of whatever liquor is in birthday shots, and be “surprised” by a parade of cop strippers. You know, every birthday party movie scene recreated into my own little episode. As we all know, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life. Yes, I got sung by a group of strangers and I gladly accepted any and every free drink that was given to me, but it was just like any other birthday, minus the hiding of drinks when the authorities show up, and at the same time, it was completely different than the others.
I was all smiles when I bought my first bottle of Malibu, and I giggled when I got questioned at the entrance of a casino. It was also great when a cop wanted to charge me with Minor in Possession but walked away when I hit him with my horizontal ID. But when I sat down one day with my 2-4-1 margarita and food with my fellow not-21-yet friend, she asked me a question I never thought the answer would be so downbeat.
“So, how does it feel to be 21?!”
Honestly? It sucks. It was all fun and games until I ordered my first $10 adult drink. It was one hell of a drink, but God the price punched me harder than the alcohol. Goodbye $3.75 beers, hello $-25.00 account balance. On top of super expensive fancy drinks, my parents will soon have to unclaim me from insurance. I know I am a strong, independent woman, but geez, I am not ready to partake on such expense. The biggest and scariest downfall of being 21 is that I am exactly a year away from graduating. Big—and I mean huge, detrimental—decisions will be thrown in my face. Am I going to be able to knock them out the field or am I going to strike out? I don't know about my fellow 21-year-olds, but the thought of having to choose between job opportunities is actually terrifying me into taking full advantage of my right to legally drink. And the worst part? The worst part about turning 21 is the moment when you look back at your life and tell yourself, "Man, I'm old!" I'm officially almost an adult. I'm one step closer to adulthood. One step closer to probably failing at it. But it's okay because I know I have my fellow adults who support all day drinking because they understand how life goes. After that long-awaited moment, it all starts to slowly go downhill. Life is hard, and this, my fellow underage friends, is why turning 21 sucks (sometimes).
So here's to turning 21. Cheers.
