May 08
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NAME:  Eric Michael Schauffele aka EMS How long you’ve been edge: Est. 1991 Growing up in your usual dysfunctional American broken home my teenage years started out with a lot of angst and frustration.  My mother worked her ass off to provide for her young unguided kids (which until recent years I took for granted) and she eventually decided to remarry.  This meant we had to pack up and move from our neighborhood, the only thing I knew.  I was barely a teen and hanging out on the streets until 2am on a school night and getting into all sorts of things which was the norm.  Being removed from the friends that I had (which were my entire world and wolfpack) I felt life slipping even further away.  A few parties here and there, crawling on the floor, and some tears of frustration, I knew all ready that if I didn’t alter my course my life was going to crash and burn fast.  I hung out with a lot of older punkers and skins and as much as I looked up to them and thought they were cool, I just had this sense that they were on a bad path.  I had known of straight edge for a bit and just didn’t quite get it at the time. Once I had hit that point in my life though it started to make some sense.  I thought long and hard to the commitment that I was contemplating.  I knew it was all or none.  After a few weeks I made the pledge and haven’t turned back since.  Combat boots, Mohawk, and Xing up made me even more of an outcast in my brand new school. In the long run I feel like it has made me stronger.  It has made me be okay to be alone, it has made me feel strong and empowered to be myself and walk proud. Many crazy nights have occurred over the years and depending on the side of the bed I woke up on you might be lucky and get the posi, optimistic part or the more militant, aggro EMS.  Countless acts of “straight edge revenge” have taken place and even though I’m 32 now, I’d probably do the same in those situations.  Whether it was smashing the drunk driver’s windows out and stealing his car belongs and car stereo or beating up drug dealers on Haight / Asbury streets in San Fran, it all just felt like a natural “survival of the fittest” reaction. Many moons later as most of my friends have completely given up on their convictions that are tattooed on their skin; I still can’t understand why they would want to change so drastically and do a 180.  I’m 32 and feel like I can’t relate to just about anyone around me at this point.  There are a few people here and there but we’re normally hundreds of miles apart and interact so infrequently.  It seems like all of my peers can not partake in a single social function without alcohol being a part of it.  As great of people my friends are it makes me concerned for their futures and their choices in life.  I think they’re all in serious denial of how much their habits are dictating what they can and can’t get done for themselves.  Or maybe they just don’t give a fuck.  Who knows? But when I sit there and listen to them complain about financial problems while paying a $50 bar tab, cry about relationship problems and wake up next to some unknown person, or that they don’t have any time to get things done but spend most of the weekend hung-over and immobile… I think to myself “Maybe I just don’t give a fuck” and throw my sympathy right out the window. Being straight edge definitely doesn’t get any easier with age.  When I was 16 everyone just thought it was a strange teenage passing phase and now at 32 people I meet just think it’s down right strange and unexplainable as to why you would live sober.  Whenever I feel alienated and need a good pick me up I just listen to “Forged in the Flames” and I will remember exactly what I am and why I am this way.

NAME:  Eric Michael Schauffele aka EMS
How long you’ve been edge: Est. 1991

Growing up in your usual dysfunctional American broken home my teenage years started out with a lot of angst and frustration.  My mother worked her ass off to provide for her young unguided kids (which until recent years I took for granted) and she eventually decided to remarry.  This meant we had to pack up and move from our neighborhood, the only thing I knew.  I was barely a teen and hanging out on the streets until 2am on a school night and getting into all sorts of things which was the norm.  Being removed from the friends that I had (which were my entire world and wolfpack) I felt life slipping even further away.  A few parties here and there, crawling on the floor, and some tears of frustration, I knew all ready that if I didn’t alter my course my life was going to crash and burn fast.  I hung out with a lot of older punkers and skins and as much as I looked up to them and thought they were cool, I just had this sense that they were on a bad path.  I had known of straight edge for a bit and just didn’t quite get it at the time. Once I had hit that point in my life though it started to make some sense.  I thought long and hard to the commitment that I was contemplating.  I knew it was all or none.  After a few weeks I made the pledge and haven’t turned back since.  Combat boots, Mohawk, and Xing up made me even more of an outcast in my brand new school. In the long run I feel like it has made me stronger.  It has made me be okay to be alone, it has made me feel strong and empowered to be myself and walk proud.

Many crazy nights have occurred over the years and depending on the side of the bed I woke up on you might be lucky and get the posi, optimistic part or the more militant, aggro EMS.  Countless acts of “straight edge revenge” have taken place and even though I’m 32 now, I’d probably do the same in those situations.  Whether it was smashing the drunk driver’s windows out and stealing his car belongs and car stereo or beating up drug dealers on Haight / Asbury streets in San Fran, it all just felt like a natural “survival of the fittest” reaction.

Many moons later as most of my friends have completely given up on their convictions that are tattooed on their skin; I still can’t understand why they would want to change so drastically and do a 180.  I’m 32 and feel like I can’t relate to just about anyone around me at this point.  There are a few people here and there but we’re normally hundreds of miles apart and interact so infrequently.  It seems like all of my peers can not partake in a single social function without alcohol being a part of it.  As great of people my friends are it makes me concerned for their futures and their choices in life.  I think they’re all in serious denial of how much their habits are dictating what they can and can’t get done for themselves.  Or maybe they just don’t give a fuck.  Who knows? But when I sit there and listen to them complain about financial problems while paying a $50 bar tab, cry about relationship problems and wake up next to some unknown person, or that they don’t have any time to get things done but spend most of the weekend hung-over and immobile… I think to myself “Maybe I just don’t give a fuck” and throw my sympathy right out the window.

Being straight edge definitely doesn’t get any easier with age.  When I was 16 everyone just thought it was a strange teenage passing phase and now at 32 people I meet just think it’s down right strange and unexplainable as to why you would live sober.  Whenever I feel alienated and need a good pick me up I just listen to “Forged in the Flames” and I will remember exactly what I am and why I am this way.

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