Member-only story
Go Ask Zara
A semi-anonymous teenage confession
I did a lot of incredibly stupid things when I was a teenager.
I was just reading Michelle Brown’s story about her own teen-induced stupidity and it made me think of my own past.
It made me think of one incident specifically.
I went through a pothead phase between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. I always assume this is the same for all Gen Xers although I have learned that is not necessarily true.
I wanted to live! I was hungry for experience and drugs seemed to be the ticket.
I read a lot as a teenager. I specifically fell head over heels for the Beat Generation as well as the hippie movement.
I wanted to know all about peace, free love, and drugs.
I wanted to “break on through to the other side.” I embraced Rimbaud’s idea that “The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses.”
Drugs! It was about drugs!
I mainly smoked pot with some hash and occasional mescaline or acid-fueled trips. I experimented with alcohol but I really liked drugs, especially pot.
