(and make some noise!)

I must have missed the memo growing into adolescence, because I cannot imagine anything I would rather do LESS with friends than go out drinking.

I don’t drink myself (being afraid of drugs that alter my state of consciousness, legal, medical or not, but that’s another story) and I don’t really fancy watching the few friends I have gradually turn into sloshed asses, so my social outing opportunities are cut down to:

• Incredibly expensive movies, mini golf, or bowling
• Free but of limited-entertainment-value museums
• Online gaming, which doesn’t really count (and not just because nobody plays the games I do…)

Granted, I could invite friends over or visit them, but homes are not (generally) designed for entertaining several people at once for any sort of prolonged period of time (and quite honestly I like having my munchies where they are).

What I’m trying to say is, I’m a young person with few friends and absolutely nothing to do. I’m also a big kid. The highlight of last Christmas was discovering a large, beautiful merry-go-round at the Botanical Gardens, and riding around on it pretending I was Link from Legend of Zelda. I just spent my 21^st birthday making paper Harry Potter wands with my fiancé. I get unreasonably excited over the idea of couch forts… and judging by the reactions of my friends when I mention these things, I’m not alone in loving these childish things either.

I’ve been reading a lot of horror stories lately about people drinking, getting drunk, and getting into trouble… or using other drugs, becoming intoxicated, and getting into trouble. I know this isn’t what happens to everyone, and I know that some of these people drink/take drugs because they just like drinking/taking drugs, but I wonder how many of these people started doing these things simply because there was nothing else to do?

I hear cries in the distance, rallying to raise the drinking age, to educate our young people into not using drugs, to FIND A SOLUTION! But as far as I can see, there’s very few people asking why this is even a problem in the first place.

Circumstances differ and I am, by no means, an expert on the situation, but I would be willing to bet my last chocolate Easter bunny that at least some of the problem is sheer boredom.

Just think about it – When you’re a kid you have toys, you have kids shows, you have parks and playgrounds and all sorts of awesome entertainment options. Then you get to about 12, maybe 15, and you’re stuck between Children’s Entertainment and Adult Entertainment. So not only do you have that marvellous cocktail of hormones running rampant, you have boredom: mind numbing, sanity devouring boredom. Is it any wonder that it’s around this age many people start drinking? You’re too big for playgrounds, too young for any sort of adult entertainment, and the world is going crazy trying to censor our hopelessly fragile and innocent young minds from anything that isn’t suitable for kids, while at the same time telling us to grow up and stop acting like kids! I’m not really the only one seeing a deficiency here, am I?

Admittedly my motivations are selfish, but I propose a solution – Start catering for the big kids. If we give young people an alternative to drinking themselves blind or lying comatose in their bedroom, we’re likely to see happier people in general and I bet you that drinking and drug taking will go way down. At the very least, we might see people starting to drink later in their lives instead of as soon as they can. Hey, we can even incorporate other healthy messages – fun activities to encourage exercise (and I don’t mean cricket or football, guys… I mean actual FUN for those of us who don’t enjoy traditional sports) and we could have vegetable forest cooking sessions (the broccoli are trees! TREES!) to encourage healthy eating and the list is endless why aren’t we doing this yet?

I want to dress up like a dragon and crush cardboard cities! I want to spend a month making foam weapons and staging epic battles in local parks! I want to be in a contest to see who can make the prettiest mermaid-themed lunch box, to go to a local community house and sit back with free popcorn watching anime with subtitles, to organise groups to book entire movie theatres for a Harry Potter watching extravaganza, dress up bikes like horses and race on a bike track, use face paint, braid my hair in funny ways, get messy and make noise and just have silly, ridiculous fun while I’m still young and healthy enough to get away with it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not alone in these feelings. If you’re out there and you agree, shout it out! I don’t think we can expect a solution to all these drug problems (or even some of the depression related ones!) until we’ve got something solid to fall back on. Cater for the big kids, I say! If everyday life is more fun, we’re not going to have nearly as many people drinking for entertainment. And then maybe, just maybe, the most common accidents won’t be getting injured from a drinking mishap, but instead getting too much glitter glue stuck in your hair.

Zoe

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Zoe is a Youth Content Producer for TINO. If you would like your blog to appear here check out how you can Be Involved.

Photo Acknowledgement:

Sourced from Flickr under the Creative Commons Licence

Trampoline June: Kevin Steele
Books: Alvarezpera