Today, I wanted to talk about why I don’t drink alcohol.
Yes, I am 21 and I have had alcohol before. But with holidays coming around,
hopefully I can inspire some healthier choices in your life. I wanted to share
with you my opinion and why I choose not to drink and my perspective on alcohol.
Please keep in mind that I have
absolutely no judgment or problems with anyone having a drink once in a while! If you have a glass of wine once in a while, and it fits with your goals, more power to you. If this is your perspective of having a good time and relaxing with your family is, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s definitely not for me. I like to work hard to achieve my goals and alcohol gets in the way of doing that.
1) I have this perspective of how my life should be
in my head. I envision success and have this image that I like to portray. I
have this idea of how I would like my life to be right now, and what I would
like my life to be in the future. Every single action that I take is either
getting me closer to my goal or further away from my goals. When I drink, I
feel like I could use that time more wisely and work towards my goals and aspirations.
2) It makes me feel not as optimal. I like living a healthy lifestyle and encourage others to do the same. I believe in “living what you are preaching” kind of lifestyle. Even though most people won’t see it, or wouldn't know if I actually went to the bars every weekend and got “smashed”, in my mind, I would like to stay as authentic as I possibly can. I would like to stay genuine and actually set a good example. Alcohol affects your performance in the gym. I am not trying to be an Olympic athlete, but every month I try to get better. I try get faster, get stronger, build up my endurance, and do one more extra rep. I try to be the best version of myself that I possible can be. Drinking alcohol sets you back a couple of days of becoming a better version of myself. I would lose those two days when I could be progressing. If you can drink all night and still get up the next morning and feel just fine, then go for it. That’s not how my body works, so I choose not to drink.
3) My background is Russian. Unfortunately, alcoholism’s
runs in my family. I have directly seen how alcohol can effect someone’s body, life,
and relationships. I have an uncle who is an alcoholic, and is currently half
disabled because of it. My sister’s dad is an alcoholic, who is a violent jerk
who would rather be drunk then to see his daughter visiting once every five
years from another country. My grandma’s siblings and their families are just
jerks and have to have a drink at every meal. I’ve seen people who would rather
buy a bottle before they buy bread. And worst of all, I’ve seen my mother
trying to end her life while being drunk at one point in her life. This is not
okay in my mind. With having to see so much alcoholism in my life, it really
put me in a complete opposite direction. I don’t like how alcohol effects your
body, don’t like being drunk, and don’t like drunk people. I bet no one can
give me an example of how alcohol saved someone’s life or helped them in any
way to become successful.
So the question is how can you
maintain a social life without drinking? When you go out with your friends, out
in a bar, or out at a house, your friends try to convince you to have a drink. When you respectively decline, your friends get
a little judgmental, and a bit pushy, and start pressuring you into having just
have “one drink”. Here’s how I solve this
problem. First of all, offer to drive when you get invited out. That
gives you the awesome “ I am driving” excuse. You can even lie further if
needed, and say you can’t even have one drink because it will takes you too
long to sober up. Always order a club soda, or ice water, and
have the actual glass in your hand. Put a lemon wedge and a straw to make it fancy
looking. If your friends get really pushy, remember the crab story. If you
never heard of a crab story, here it is. It’s an actual truth. If you put one
crab in a bucket, it will escape. When you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket,
and one tries to get out, to succeed in “crabland” and do awesome “crab things”,
all the other crabs will try to grab and hold one to each other and pull each
other back into the bucket. Those kind of friends who are really pushy, are not
your real friends and chances are, they have wrong intentions for wanting you
to drink.
I hope that you learned something.
This is what my experience has been in the past year of me living on my own. I
learned so many lessons, and this was one of them.
