The night of my 21st birthday
I'm not going to say that I didn't drink on my 21st birthday, because I did. I did not get completely drunk, though. What stands out most to me, though was not the drinking. It was the people, the friends form out of town that came to spend the last big mile-stone birthday for may years with me. What stands out is the countless new experiences I got to experience.
I had never been a big drinker, only having tried a couple of drinks before I was 21, so when I entered the first bar of the night, a bar and grill my parents liked and were meeting me at to celebrate my birthday, I didn't feel extremely out of place...until they asked me what the first alcoholic drink they were ever going to buy me was going to be. I didn't have an answer. I didn't have a vast amount of experience, let alone a menu of drinks I knew I liked. So, at that moment, I started the night with my new habit. "I don't know. What drink do you think I'd like?" Thus, leaving my ordering to those around me. Sure, that was the night I tried my first Amarillo sour and had my first tequila shot. It was the first time I tried a number of drinks.
But it was also the first time I went to a bar that wasn't also a restaurant. It was the first time I got to "get drinks" with my friends and just sit, hang out and talk. It was a night of more new experiences and "first times" then any other night, I think. I felt like I made it. I had come this far, even when I didn't think it would be possible. I had experienced and addressed depression, I had experimented with eating disorders, had my first boyfriend, and given birth to my first child. Things weren't perfect and I wasn't always the most normal member of my group, but I had made it to my 21st birthday. I had over come it all and, for once, I didn't feel so...lost. I didn't feel so naive and like such a goodie goodie, even though I knew nothing of the bar experience and even less about drinking.
So, yea, I could talk about how I drank for the first time as a legal, of age, drinker. I could talk about taking my first shots or how the bar we went to had the word "Banana" in the title and had replaced the sign outside with a giant, yellow, banana with writing on it (ok, it was still a sign, just more creative then the typical square signs we often see)and that I almost felt cool because it was one of the most popular bars in the area at the time. And, while all of that may be true, that's not what comes to mind when I look back on my 21st birthday, it's the fun, the people and the adventure of new that made it magical.
What about you? Do you have any great and memorable 21st birthday stories (let's keep it PG13) or was your 21st birthday just 'eh'? We'd love to hear!
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