No excuses needed to say no to alcohol

I wish I had known this when I first turned 18.

As your 18th birthday rolls around, you feel like you own the world, the freedom is ripe and your chance to make your own impression in life has arisen. Being 18 was the chance to show your peers who you were, an opportunity to fit in and a chance to be unique and confident. 

What I didn’t understand when I was 18 was that I could do all this without a single drop of alcohol. Heck, most alcohol didn’t even taste nice – it was just the answer at the time to see who could have the best night with the best stories to tell everyone in the morning while resting a thumping headache.

But I like to consider myself one of the lucky ones; I saw alcohol for the potent drink it was and decided slowly to drink it less. But it wasn’t an easy task. At first I would put my hand up to be the designated driver to cover the fact I wouldn’t be drinking for the night. 

Everyone seemed to love it at the time. But soon, they would start asking why I wasn’t drinking, and they would call me “lame” for not wanting to “get drunk” with them yet again.

I heard it all: “You’re no fun”, “You can’t enjoy yourself sober”, “Way to be a party-pooper”.

And that was when the excuses started. I didn’t want to be the “weird” friend who never came to the party, so I fashioned together excuses to cover my sober tracks. 

I came up with some rippers over the years, too, and they worked. But what I needed most was the guts to say: “I’m not drinking and I don’t care what you think.”