Last night we celebrated my 21st birthday by having some friends over to our house and having a party of sorts, however the celebrations were cut short. While sitting around in the living room playing some games we got a knock on our window. Some boys, barely 18, were drunk and asking us for some beer. Given that they were young and that we didn’t have that much left we said no. Eventually we had to draw the blinds and close the window since they were hanging around and annoying us.
So we went about continuing with the games and having fun until we hear a loud crash from the hallway. One of the boys had come back from the group who were all in the street and kicked our front door down. Immediately we dived into the hallway to see what had happened and the sheer disbelief of what they’d done threw us for a moment as there was no need or reason for it at all. Kat, one of the nicest people I know, was shaken up and decided to follow them so most of the people from our party left to make sure they didn’t get away whilst I stayed to continue talking to the police.
Unfortunately they realised that we would have called the police so they ran for it and got away. Although what annoyed me most was that the police took an absolute age to arrive and had apparently taken a different route to the one I told them to take ‘to try and head them off’ regardless of me telling them the way in which they were going.
The police took my details and a short description of what happened but unfortunately since they got away nothing more came from it. Our landlord wasn’t exactly impressed, he didn’t even believe us at first because we do live in a really nice area and this is such a rare thing to happen. Thankfuly our door wasn’t too damaged, the main panel had been kicked in but we managed to clip it back in but of course it’s not going to be as strong as before (not that it was strong enough anyway).
What really gets to me is that they not only ruined my party, but because it was my party I feel somewhat responsible. I know nothing was directly my fault but given I was hosting I have to assume some responsibility for dealing with them. What is hard to understand though is why people drink if they know they get violent. To me when I drink it’s for the taste, if I get drunk I’m a happy drunk and never violent. I think if I was to become violent then no amount of peer pressure would ever make me want to drink because I know that I’d turn into someone that I’d dislike. Are people that stupid that they’d knowingly become a thug just for the sake of ‘a good time’? Even if that good time means wrecking the evening of those around them?
It’s for that reason I find myself acting up to my new found maturity upon reaching 21 and questioning the youth of today.