Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by wireties

We certainly should not be drinking or using in their presence.

I would actually disagree with that first statement, and have a story to explain why.


My Junior year at the National competition in Atlanta, Friday night was one of our younger mentors' birthday. He wanted to go to a restaurant with a couple mentors and students who he was friendly with and have a good time. Being a young guy, he decided that Hooters was exactly where he wanted to have his birthday dinner. Later that night we would have to answer to our head mentor about whether or not Hooters was a fit place for a bunch of young adolescent boys on a field trip, but that's beside the point.

We got to the restaurant, ordered our wings and food, and the two mentors got some beers. This didn't strike me as odd at all, every single time I had gone to a restaurant with my parents or parents' friends they had gotten alcohol. Alcohol, at this point in my life, was a means for adults to get tipsy and have a good time. And adults having beers was always followed by some light stumbling, overloud talking, and occasional swervy driving. Drinking beer and getting drunk sounded like a very exciting adult activity and it was very not cool that the law told me I couldn't do it.

While eating, the birthday boy was made to get on a table and hula hoop with a couple of the waitresses (don't worry, he did so graciously and professionally), songs were sung, music was played, and we had a great time just talking and hanging out. What did strike me as odd though was that there was no light stumbling, no obnoxious talking, and certainly no swervy driving. Each of the adults had only had a beer or two and then stopped. No big pitchers or weird mixed drinks. Just two beers.

We walked back to the hotel through downtown talking about tomorrow's matches and the fact that we had secretly recorded the young mentor hula hooping exploits. We weren't a drunk group wandering home. We were two mentors and three high schoolers on an amazing robotics trip. Those mentors showed me alcohol in a context where it wasn't used as a means to an end. Sure I had seen people drinking casually on TV and movies, but it is entirely different to see strangers doing something and then to see two people that you respect immensely doing it. They were done mentoring me on fabrication, math, and design that night and instead mentored me, unintentionally I think, on life.


I hope that one of these days I can have a similar effect on a student on my team. Though I may have to pick a place other than Hooters to save our administration some headache. I hear there is a nice alternative now anyway