21 shots

Someone just sent me this photo (thanks Helene). I hadn't seen the girl's face in a long while, so it gave me a shock. Her name is Marie-Louise, and she was one of my friends in highschool. She died at the age of 19, from a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs. I visit her grave when I am in the town where we grew up. It's a ritual, but I don't think it helps me understand what I felt when she died.

I talk about Marie-Louise once in a while in class. Over the past few years there have been two alcohol related deaths at one of the schools where I have taught. In both cases someone got way too drunk and died alone because no one checked on them or went looking for them. Same thing happened to Marie-Louise. So I tell my students to look out for each other. I don't tell them not to drink, but once or twice I have suggested that as an actual alternative.

American kids can't drink alcohol until they turn 21. It's illegal. (But they do anyway, of course.) So when you turn 21 it's a big deal. For the first time you can visit a bar legally, and some celebrate by taking a shot of alcohol for each year of their life so far: 21 shots for your 21st birthday.

People talk about it as if it was normal. I am from one of the most liberal countries in the world, and I didn't think anything alcohol related could shock me. But the 21 shots is pretty much the dumbest thing I ever heard.