thisburrito asked: when you’re 15 you’re not “being straightedge” you’re just obeying the law. you dont legally have a choice to be edge or not until you’re 21. i respect people in their mid twenties who have been edge since early teens much more than teens because mid twenties live on their own, are surrounded by it from their peers, and can LEGALLY purchase and drink it.

I don’t know about you, but everyone I know tried alcohol and drugs of some sort when they were in middle school or high school. Kids are surrounded by drugs, alcohol and cigarettes in one form or another their entire lives—prior to the pressure to drink or try weed in high school, we grow up bombarded with images of happy, “normal” people drinking and smoking in advertisements, television, movies, magazines, and hear references to it in popular music. By the time we’re a teenager (or earlier) and are finally faced with the opportunity of trying it, we’ve already internalized that it’s a completely normal and expected behavior. So I respect anyone at any age who has the willpower and courage to reject what is popular, “normal” and expected and instead do (or not do, rather) what feels right to them, even though it may be seen as weird to others.

And of course, drugs are illegal whether you’re 21 or not, so your entire view that someone is only TRULY straight edge after they can legally drink at 21 doesn’t make much sense—a 15 year old rejecting illegal drugs isn’t any different than a 21 year old rejecting illegal drugs, they’re in the same boat legally and socially.

As for me, I tried alcohol and weed when I was 14 and did both for a few years. I’m 38 now, and I’ve been straight edge since I was 17 years old … not 21.

Submitted by guav