Tired of people demonizing alcohol to me before my 21st birthday

I’ve grown up in an environment where alcohol was not around me much as my mother had gone through a lot to get my dad to stop drinking so much. Alcohol is a very new concept to me, and only in recent years have I become very interested in alcohol, not for only getting buzzed or drunk, but for the artisanship and culture that goes a long with different types of alcohol. Of course, I’ve had quite a few drinks in my time as a college kid as many have, and it’s not too abnormal, but now that I am about to turn 21 and am excited that I can just go into a store and legally purchase alcohol, everyone around me thinks that I’m getting excited to like self destruct or something.

I cannot stand how people have demonized the hell out of alcohol, and yet it remains a huge part of culture and society. Me being able to enjoy an alcoholic beverage here and there doesn’t make me an alcoholic, and there’s just too many people around me that don’t understand that.

It makes me feel ashamed for even wanting to be able to drink on my 21st birthday, and makes me feel ashamed as a person that people don’t trust that I can handle myself with a new world. I’m not saying alcohol should be put on a pedestal, as there are a lot of fucked up people that consume copious amounts of it and do fucked up stuff. But goddamn, when my own peers are looking down on me for being excited to turn 21, it just makes me feel so embarrassed and ashamed