Insight

About a year and 5 months ago, I wrote a brief and angry post outlining my lack of understanding and general distaste for alcohol in social settings. I was met with some equally angry opposition, but with no real answers to my question.

This past weekend, I celebrated my 21st birthday... with alcohol. I'm pretty proud of myself for waiting until I was of age to participate in such an activity. Of course, that's not the purpose of this post. I actually want to share my experiences.

My decision to ever tolerate alcohol didn't happen overnight by any means. It took baby steps, starting with placing myself AROUND alcohol. Originally, if there was ever a presence of alcohol, I would shut down and remove myself from the area. I couldn't stand the smell, or the way people acted when they drank it. It was all pointless to me.

Then October 2011 came around (this is the earliest I can remember). A friend of mine invited me to his Halloween house party. I knew there would be drinking, so I was hesitant to say yes. But I figured I couldn't avoid the situation forever, so I went. I arrived with preconceived notions that there would be puking everywhere and violence (I'm pretty sure I brought a taser just in case). But I was happy to be wrong... for the most part. I had lots of fun and found myself hanging around "drunks" more often.

But even after indirect exposure to alcohol, wouldn't you know it-- I still had questions. Does alcohol affect your brain cells? How do you know when you're drunk? How long do you stay drunk? How many drinks does it take to pass out? Obviously there are some answers you can get better by doing rather than asking, thus provoking my decision to have my first drink at 21.

Fast forward 6 days, 5 drinks, 3 sips, and only 1 possible hangover later--I realized something. Drinking isn't so terrible. It creates an environment of lively people (of age!) who just wanna relax and have a good time. Of course, I didn't get all the answers I wanted from just one weekend. But I'm sure, given more opportunities, that I'll figure it all out.

I realized something else as well. Humans are so judgmental! It is so easy for us to downgrade the things we don't understand. Based on my very limited prior experiences with alcohol, I thought I knew everything. All alcohol was the same and everyone who drank it was the same, in my eyes. But that's not the case at all. I'm glad I had that experience. I'm glad to be more open-minded than I once was.