I had my first taste of Alcohol when I was around 15 I think. One of my friends, her family owned the country pub, we would go for picnics every now and again and she would bring a bottle of beer and I'd make some sandwiches. We would meet up and off we'd go on our bicycles, to find a nice remote spot. You don't want to be found drinking at 15, plus there is the whole rush of adrenaline that comes with disobeying the rules.
Fear too, of course, but we felt like two little rebels riding off on our bikes. Then the one beer, became two, until I crashed my bike and fucked up the handlebars. Then I stopped, it got far too risky after that, for me anyway. The chance of me, being found out, became too real and I was too scared of the consequences. I waited until I was 16, when I was a lot to go to some of the teenager discos in my local town. Cider was the drink of choice for me, when I was in my late teens, I also drank Guinness for a while, until I drank too much and I spend most of the night vomiting. That was a real turn off for me.
(One story I have to include, is when I was 14/15 and I stopped eating meat. I remember my mum taking me to the local Doctors, to ask for advice as my diet was pretty shite and neither my mum or myself knew what I should be eating. The doctor, half jokingly, suggested I drink a pint of Guinness a day, for the Iron. I looked at my mum, she wasn't impressed.)
In my teens, I would drink whenever I went out, the aim was to get drunk, because that is what everyone done. That was what was expected. I was a bit of a loner in my early teens, but later on I so wanted to fit in, so I went a long with the peer pressure. Looking back now, I wish I hadn't.
It was when I was in my twenties, that I actually realised, that I really didn't enjoy the whole drinking atmosphere. I certainly didn't enjoy being around drunk people, which remains the same today. So I made a conscience decision to stop drinking. It just didn't appeal to me and I din't enjoy how it made me feel. For sure there is a certain looseness what comes with drinking, I think that's why a lot of people do it. But me, give me a little toot of a pipe (pure green) and I was happy out.
Drinking also messes up one's balance and as I love to dance, I found that it was counter productive to me dancing how I really wanted to. As in, not losing my balance and bumping into others or worst still, falling over. Alcohol is just not my thing. Occasionally I will drink and when I do, it will be one craft beer or if it's a celebration, Rum and lemon.
I love that I can go out for the night and dance it away and wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. If I was drinking that would not be the case. Plus Alcohol today, has so much preservatives and crap in it, that I just don't want going into my body. In saying that though, on a very hot day, I do find it hard to say no, to a cold beer. So occasionally I say yes.
Alcohol, is not a huge part of my life, in truth it is more like a poison these days. At one stage, in life, beer was medicinal. It was made from native herbs, which all have amazing herbal qualities. But like so much down through our story, so many things have been twisted.
This is my response to the following prompt from the wonderful Weekend Engagement Challenge .......
Alcohol...do you drink it in moderation and to be sociable, simply to get drunk as quickly as possible, or not at all?
All images used in this post are my own.
