5 things I’ve learned from not drinking for 2+ months

I’d like to preface this list by saying nothing happened. I didn’t decide to stop drinking because of a terrible, crazy drunk night. Lit’rally - nothing happened. I wasn’t drinking much to begin with – never during the week and generally a beer or two on a weekend, and even then, that's pretty tame. To be honest, I probably should’ve done this experiment in college, when there were a few nights that some crazy stuff did go down – shout out to my Pi Lam brothers and srat sisters, and oh yeah, TOTS, for some experiences I truly wish I could do over! (Always very fun, don’t get me wrong, its just, occasionally, okay actually all the time, I think back and cringe). But I digress.

I decided to do this mainly for the money aspect – I talk more about that in one of my points – and also to set a goal for myself and stick to it. For transparency’s sake, I have only “drank” once this whole time, and that was a few shooters (aka lame-o Malibu mixed with soda and water) in Austin, and those were interspersed with a full glass of water each. I mean business by doing this challenge, but I also had to do as the Austinites did (what’s up Dirty Six!)

Anyway, here goes:

1.     I’d estimate I saved $250 in two months. I went to Austin in early October and only spent $60 on food for 5 days – alcohol would’ve sent that to well above $100, even just from casually indulging.

From a typical $8 beer at dinner, to buying a 6-pack to bring to a pregame, to buying wine to bring to a friend’s house for dinner, that stuff adds up. A $28 meal can easily descend to a $20 meal just by skipping the beer. Go to a concert and the drinks are so jacked up - $10 for a tiny glass of rum and coke at the 930 Club? No gracias. I will drink a free coke at the bar.

2.     No hangovers! Okay, so this was never a huge problem for me anyway. I can count on less than one half of one hand how many I had this past year (2). But even smaller hang overs, or just that feeling that “something isn’t totally right” have vanished and now weekends are a little more productive and happier.

3.     Control. In hindsight, a lot of mistakes that happened in my past…all minor stuff…could’ve been easily avoided had I not been drinking. I probably wouldn’t have gotten annoyed with my pal who told me I was stupid for wanting to travel alone. I wouldn’t have eaten all those slices of Benny’s extra large pizzas. Etc etc. This is probably a huge DUH but my head is now always clear. I like it!

4.     Nobody cares. I think a lot of people are concerned with going to a bar and people noticing that they’re not drinking and thinking its odd. But I promise you – no one thinks about you as much as you think about you, AND, people respect decisions you make. I haven’t been running about town telling every person I know that I’m trying this out, but when it comes out in conversation, most people are a little mesmerized and then almost seemingly guilty? “Wow I really need to do that too” is a common response I’ve gotten. I’ve gotten no pressure from people, in fact, the most pressure I’ve felt was probably from my dad, who, like me, loves craft beer and I think was a little amazed that I turned one down at dinner once. “C’mon, just a sip?” he asked. I waved it off, and he hasn’t asked since. Simple as that. Maybe some environments are a little more prone to pressure, but thankfully mine isn’t. Like I said, no one cares. As long as you can resist the temptation, you’re good to go. No one will be forcing liquor down your throat, I promise. And if they do, you need some new pals.

5.     You won’t care either. By this, I mean, it might be a little weird at first to go out somewhere where everyone else is drinking and you don’t. The first few times I went out, it was just instinct to turn straight to the drinks menu and pick out an IPA. But that’s all it was – instinct – it wasn’t like I really needed or even craved that drink. Soon enough, I stopped caring and kind of felt really great about not drinking right then.

So where am I going with all this? Clearly, this choice isn’t for everyone, and I’d like to think that most people do “drink responsibly” and aren’t constantly black out and they do make good choices and just drink a glass or two for fun. A majority of the time, I was like that too. But I’ve also seen and experienced the nasty side of drinking. In college, everyone seemed to be on the same page, but outside of that Blacksburg bubble, I’ve seen some people go down some srsly dangerous paths due to their drinking habits. Some people never seem to grow up, orrrrr maybe its just that the rest of us can’t rage 3-4 nights in a row anymore. I don’t really have any sort of desire to go back to that, anyway.

Additionally, I'm loving this challenge because I've sort of come to the realization that I am not the person I thought I was (or who I wanted to be?) in school. I was never much of a "partier", definitely preferring chilling with buddies as opposed to going out. I'm probably a lot more introverted than I'd care to admit, I love hanging out with my family more than basically anyone, and I really really love working. I knew all this all along, but it all got buried for a while in school. This year I really set out to embrace it. 2015 has been a good year for being honest with myself, and I'm interested to see how this not drinking choice will factor in to this honesty thing long term. 

In conclusion, not drinking has rocked. Its helped me put a lot of things in perspective, saved money, and is a challenge – a good challenge. Maybe one day I’ll have a drink again, or maybe I won’t, I don’t know or really care. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. 

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This being the end of the year and all, its about time to get some lists going. My favorite concerts, movies, and Year in Review are all coming up. STAY TUNED.