Smashed

I just finished a memoir called "Smashed" by Koren Zailckas. I didn't really like or enjoy it, but I was compulsed to read it in about a day and half. And it's sticking with me. In it she details her life and her relationship with alcohol. And it is a scary one. It makes me wonder...do I know anyone like that in my life right now? I think I do. But no women (that I know of).

She was a binge drinker. And a 5-6 night a week binger at that. Most of her alcoholism occurred in college. She's a year younger than I am. And I swear, I just can't believe that someone (a GIRL) can do that to themselves. I don't really know that life, but I have caught glimpses of it. In college for about a month, I was drunk. I would wake up still drunk and go to classes to take exams. Most of the time I would miss my early morning classes. That was the semester I nearly lost my scholarship. But I have never blacked out. I have never had my stomach pumped. I have never unwillingly had sex with a guy just because I was too drunk to say no. I have never woken up and not known where I was. I have never even thrown up from drinking, although I have suffered from some pretty killer hangovers.

Ugh, the whole idea of all of that makes me feel dirty. I wonder if I knew or even currently know any women who abuse alcohol in that way. And if so, what compels them to keep drinking? It's just not something I understand. For some reason, it really saddens me to think that anyone could live like that. How can your whole life revolve around alcohol? How horrible must you feel about yourself when you sober up and realize what happened the night before. It's just icky. I don't like it. And I don't like to think of the young girls out there right now who are going down this path. I know it is a right of passage to go through your "drunken years" but I just wish society wouldn't embrace the whole "girls gone wild" mentality. It's really sick.

Anyway...her memoir made me think. I guess maybe it was good afterall.