27

I’ve told a few stories about the kids at the school I work at being surprised that my husband is white but yesterday, a couple of kids were surprised that I was married at all! So, we were talking about how the choices we make affect us long after we do the thing that we wanted to do. That we have to “suffer” the consequences whether good or bad (we were having a really good talk if you ask me).

Then, inevitably, the conversation took a downward spiral to the topic of drugs and the way they can make a person feel. Alcohol and how it burns all the way down.

“Mrs. Sam, what’s your favorite drink?” asks the student.
“None of them. I hate the way that alcohol tastes.”
“What?! You just haven’t had the right ones. You have to get a fruity drink.”
“Ya. But I can still smell the alcohol, which means that I can still taste the alcohol. I personally prefer to do things that I like to do so since I don’t like the taste of alcohol, there is no reason for me to keep trying.” I say.
“So, then, your first experience was sex was good one?” asks the student, “Wait, you have had sex before, right Mrs. Sam?”
“I’m married.”
“You’re married? How can you be married when you’re only a few years older than me?” What the heck?
“Ummm. I’m 27. So I am more than a few years older than you.”

I think that the students sometimes think that I am younger than I really am because when I tell them that I have never smoked a cigarette- or anything else for that matter- and that I have never been drunk, they just assume that I must be younger than my years since everyone gets drunk on their 21st birthday! And since they don’t have anyone in their lives who chooses to be above the influence of drugs and alcohol, they assume that people don’t truly live sober lives- that’s just a lie that grown-ups tell them so the teens won’t have any fun.

Makes me sad…