The article reflects on the author's experiences with alcohol starting at a young age. At 13, the author recalls the initial thrill of drinking and how it signified a transition from childhood to adolescence. Each drinking milestone—from sipping wine to chugging gin and vodka—maps a journey filled with both liberation and danger. The author relays moments of reckless joy and confusion, with drinking becoming a way to explore identity, sexuality, and the blurred lines between childhood and adult responsibilities.
I first got drunk at 13 in the upstairs room of a cheap Italian restaurant, sip by sip on other people's wine.
We drank to exit childhood and to hold on to it, to slip out of our terrible self-consciousness and play a little longer in the park.
There was drunk touch and drunk sex - was there any other type of sex to be had?
Suddenly, grown men looked at me differently and I was the one sent into the off-licence.
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