Harry looked up at the altar, with tears flowing freely. His life was a mess, and it had affected the lives of many people, including his parents and his younger sister, Penny.
Harry remembered a time when he had the perfect family. They lived in a nice neighborhood, in a suburb of Philadelphia. His father, Peter Donovan, was a postal worker and his mother, Theresa Donovan was a middle school science teacher. Then, there was Harry’s baby sister, Penny, who was six years younger than him. Harry always looked after Penny, keeping the bullies away from her, as well as most of the boys. The two of them were very close, that is, until Harry went away to college. That’s when everything began to change.
Harry received a full scholarship to UCLA in California. But, he soon found that college life wasn’t what he thought it would be. The classes were easy for him, but what wasn’t easy, was being so far away from his family. Harry had never been away from them before, not even for one day.
Two weeks into the semester, Harry began getting homesick. His roommate, John tried to help him, by taking him to a party off-campus. When John offered him a beer, Harry started to refuse, until John told him that it would help him to loosen up, and make him feel better. Harry took a few sips, and discovered that it wasn’t too bad, and he got a slight buzz from it.
By the end of the night, Harry had consumed six beers, and he no longer had any inhibitions. He was hitting on every woman at the party.
When John finally caught up with Harry, he found his roommate dancing on the couch in just his underwear. John knew that it was time to get Harry back to the dorm. He grabbed Harry’s clothing, and dragged Harry to the car.
The next morning, Harry experienced his first hangover. However, even though he was sicker than a dog, he remembered how good he felt when he was drinking, and how it had made him forget about being homesick.