Araceli Jimenez-Alonzo

Professor Lewenstien

English 1A

April 12, 2018

                                                       Family Tradition? 

My family has had its share of alcoholics; one of them has even been my dad. His dad and brothers have been alcoholics and they all started drinking at a young age. It's not a nice experience seeing your drunk dad aggressively pull your mom's hair till she falls to the ground. And now several kids are putting themselves at the risk of ending up like my dad because they are binge drinking. Binge drinking doesn't only put them at risk of becoming alcohol dependent, but it also puts them at risk of getting into accidents. Their brain functioning will deteriorate in  their later adulthood. I've been able to see kids my age binge drink and I've seen how out of control they can get. They either get so drunk that they can't even stand or they lose their consciousness. They're not even aware of how silly or ridiculous they might be looking. I want readers to understand the risks that come with drinking irresponsible. Sure, one or two drinks may be fine, but four six drinks may just get you into big trouble.

When I was about five or six years old, my dad used to be an alcoholic. The image that I will never get out of my head is the one where I saw my dad physically hurt my mom for the first and last time. I remember being in bed, and I knew it was late because it was dark outside, yet my mom was still up waiting for my dad to get home. Soon, my dad does come home, and as soon as he enters the room I could smell the stench of all the alcohol he drank stench up the room. My mom starts telling him stuff, and I was getting sleepy so I wasn't able to understand what she had said to him, but whatever it was it must've pissed him off because he got loud and aggressively pulled her hair when she wanted to walk away. I had then stood up quick on the bed and I looked at him because I had never seen him hurt my mother. He too saw me and even he seem shocked of what he had done. My mom could've easily decided to leave him, but instead chose to stay by his side and support him in his fight against his alcohol addiction. With the support of his family and the AA group, my father became sober, and had beat his alcohol addiction.

My father, Leobardo Esteban Jimenez, has always been a hard worker. He is so good that he makes difficult work look like a piece of cake. My dad grew up in Michoacán, México. He went to school for a while, but didn't complete high school, and despite not finishing, he is one of the smartest men I've known. Since he didn't complete high school, he would work with his dad and his several other siblings to help his parents. And after a while, he got married to my mom, but he soon was realizing that no matter how good of worker he was, he wasn't going to better himself if he stayed at Mexico. When my father decided to migrate to the U.S. , he did well right away. Sure, he was only working in the fields but he was sure winning more than what he getting back home. So he convinced my mom to migrate too, but little did she know that while she was crossing the border, I was forming inside her stomach. Luckily, she made it over just fine, but soon my dad became an alcoholic, and things started to get ugly. My father became a jobless drunk and my mother was pregnant with no support from her husband because he'd rather be out drinking. My mother never lost hope though, because she knew my dad was a good man full of hopes, and she was powerful for never giving up on him. My father was in a hole, and he was struggling to get out, but he had dreams for my mother, myself, and for himself, and he wasn't going to stop fighting for them until he reached them. He stopped letting the alcohol taking over him and he soon started taking over every other obstacle in his way. He kept working hard to give my mom a home, and my brothers and I the opportunities he never had. To this day, he still gives us more than what we deserve, expecting nothing in return but to not go through the same mistakes he did.

As a child, I grew up watching my uncles drink in every family gathering, and drinking seemed like something normal that adults enjoyed doing. And it was a very normal thing to see adults to do in any party I went to, but the first time I saw a fifteen year old kid, I was shocked because I wasn't sure if that was right or if he would get in trouble. Now, I see several teens post pictures or videos of themselves drinking all over social media like if that was the new normal. Sure, at the moment they seem fine because they're laughing and just having a good time. but are they even aware of the effects they may have a few hours later, or even a few years later? Binge drinking in teenagers causes the most deaths and accidents in teens every year. Furthermore, binge drinking also increases the chance of becoming an alcoholic and of inheriting any brain damage. Teens should be better informed by their parents at the age where they're conscious of everything they do.  

In the article "Opting to drink young affects other decisions decision to drink young affects other decisions studies say memory and spatial relations can be affected by alcohol use" explains the effects binge drinking has on teens brains.  Binge drinking at a young age will affect the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus part of the brain, which are the parts that allow memory and learning, and reasoning and decision making. In the article there is a quote that says "Most important for human functioning is this decision making, this ability to ponder and reflect', "That isn't complete until well into the teenage years to approaching 20." This quote is explaining that a reason the young brain is affected so much is because the brain hasn't fully developed yet. So the more a young person consumes alcohol, the more the brain will be affected.  Nowadays everyone sees drinking as normal, and because of that many more teenagers have engaged into drinking. Drinking can be chill but teenagers don't chill when they drink because they tend to binge drink without even knowing what consequences their actions may have in the future. Furthermore, Tara Haelle backs this statement up in  “Alcohol can rewire the teenage brain” says an effect of underage drinking is long term effects on the brain. This is a fact most people aren't aware about. She says “ A new rodent study finds that alcohol can lead to long term and harmful changes to the brain. Tara Haelle then further explains the rodent study done by a few scientists on some rats to see how alcohol affected their brain. During the study the scientists give 10 doses of alcohol to adolescent rats for over 16 days which would equal to the model of a binge drinking teen. She then explains that the rats never received any more alcohol and that the scientists later continued their study when the rats had reached adulthood in which they discovered that the learning and memory part of the brain was working oddly. The nerves cells weren't communicating normally and the branches coming off the nerve cells were shaped long and thin and not like mushrooms which was the way they're supposed to look. Tara Haelle later concluded that the alcohol was the reason for so much of the damage done to the brains of the rate. She explains that the way the rats  brains were damaged is the same way a teenager's brain would be damaged if engaging into so much drinking. Binge drinking is a social issue which is affecting the younger generation because they know very little about the long term effects to it. It is important to spread awareness of the harm alcohol may cause the teenage brain. I also did some research on the relationship between Alcohol abuse and domestic violence. Buddy T., in “The Combination of Domestic Abuse and Alcohol” quotes, “ According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that two-thirds of victims of spousal violence report that the perpetrator had been drinking.” So yes, there has been high rates of circumstances in where people have been attacked by their partner while they’ve been drunk. The author also says, “Although research indicates that among men who drink heavily, there is a higher rate of assaults resulting in injury, the majority of men classified as high-level drinkers do not abuse their partners.” Alcohol is not a cause of domestic violence, especially in cases in where a person is already too dependent on alcohol. The teenagers of the world need as much help as they can get, even if it seems as they don’t want it. Barbara F. Meltz in “Parents Often Clueless On Their Teen’s Drinking” says “Teenagers whose parents talk to them frequently about alcohol report that when they are faced with a decision to drink or not,or to take the second or third drink, they often hear a parent’s voice in their head. In other words, says Wallace, conversations can be deterrents.” Many times parents are afraid to speak to their children about topics like alcohol, but isn’t it better to always make them aware of the dangers they don’t know?

Every time there is a school break, I work with my father in the fields. I don't say this about my father only because he's my father, but my dad is just one of the greatest workers I know. Whether it's grape picking season, lemon picking season, or any other type of field working job, my dad will naturally be great at the job. He's incredibly fast, and talented. You may think working in the fields isn't much of a job, but it is no easy task either, especially after you had been an alcoholic for several years. Recently I've been working with my dad, and I look at him and it's amazing how he once was alcohol dependent, because now all I see is one of my biggest role models. He's had the same working boots for about four years now. His working boots are a brown color, and are very crusty now because they've been in my das hardworking footsteps for a while now. The boots may be old and falling apart, but those boots are with him anytime he's working, whether it's in the fields or just at home. They are part of every great path he creates. Those boots take him allow him to take care of us, his family. He could easily choose to get new work shoes every time he can, but he chooses to give my mom, brothers, and whole new worlds he couldn't experience. Those boots make him a beautiful and generous person. And I wonder a lot, how did he do it to get out of that alcohol addiction and just be the super human he is, so I asked him on our way home, while we were covered in dirt and sweat from a day of work. He responded, “My father and brothers would all do it, and it just seemed normal until one day all I would look forward to was the alcohol. It became a need, but it was an ugly need because I saw value in nothing else.” For him, alcohol is dangerous. My father said he started drinking at a young age, some time around when he was 16 or 17. He said the only reason he started drinking was because his fathers and brothers would drink like if it was something normal. He had never expected himself to one day turn into an alcoholic to the point where the alcohol was taking over him. After doing some research on teenage alcoholism, I learned that when teens drink, they are also never aware of what risks it may have five years later, a few hours later, or of all the damage alcohol has already done in teens.

If it was dangerous for him even when he was already an adult,  imagine how much dangerous it would be in his youth? I basically understood that it's common sense that alcohol can be a harm to anyone, especially to people who still aren't even adults. And for a while, he stayed quiet like if he was reminiscing back to those times of struggle, and just told me to never stop taking care of myself, that way I can take better of my family than what he was able to do, but little will I ever be able to do of what he did.

My father, Leobardo Esteban Jimenez, used to be an alcoholic. For a while it seemed normal, because I used to see my uncles be drunks as well and they never seemed to cause much trouble. All my father would do was wake up early in the morning, and then come back home late, very drunk, with no energy to even make it to the bed, and would end up falling asleep on the couch. Everything seemed normal, until the night he came home and aggressively pulled my mom by her hair. That was the first time I saw him hurt her and it was also the first time I realized how bad alcohol can damage a person .

My father said he started drinking at a young age, some time around when he was 16 or 17. He said the only reason he started drinking was because his fathers and brothers would drink like if it was something normal. He had never expected himself to one day turn into an alcoholic to the point where the alcohol was taking over him. After doing some research on teenage alcoholism, I learned that when teens drink, they are also never aware of what risks it may have five years later, a few hours later, or of all the damage alcohol has already done in teens.

Although my dad was an alcoholic once, he was also a hard worker and never gave up to fight for what he wanted. And in all the hard work he would do, he'd always have his brown, high top, wrinkled boots. With those boots, he would work in the fields, or in any other task he had. He could've easily bought new shoes every so often, but he wouldn't because all he needed were those brown, high top shoes to get him through the days. Those were also the boots he wore throughout his alcohol addiction, and through his way out of his struggle. Those boots were always there with him to fight and win every fight. And he won the fight against his alcohol addiction.

                                                                   Works Cited

Haelle, Tara. “Alcohol Can Rewire the Teenage Brain.” Science News for Students, 3 July 2016, http://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/alcohol-can-rewire-teenage-brain.

Nejman, Daily, R. s. (2002, Dec 11). Opting to drink young affects other decisions decision to drink young affects other decisions studies say memory and spatial relations can be affected by alcohol use. (INCLUDES teens, boozeand brains). York Daily Record Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.collegeofthedesert.edu/docview/274303029?accountid=42321 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Meltz, B. F. (2002, Apr 25). PARENTS OFTEN CLUELESS ON THEIR TEEN'S DRINKING. Boston Globe Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.collegeofthedesert.edu/docview/405446891?accountid=42321 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

T, Buddy. “Drinking Is Linked to Domestic Abuse, But Is It a Cause?” Verywell Mind, http://www.verywellmind.com/domestic-abuse-and-alcohol-62643.