I don’t go around saying that alcohol is bad for you. I’m not trying to get people to stop drinking. And I’m not going around pretending that I’m better than anyone else because I don’t drink. I don’t do it because, in all honesty, it doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest… at the present moment.
Almost all of my friends drink, in varying amounts. I’m perfectly fine with that, why the hell wouldn’t I be? So it confuses me when people aren’t perfectly fine with my desire to remain sober. Some ask me why I choose not to drink, confused as to why an eighteen year old has no desire in getting drunk. Others try to convince me to take a drink. I don’t mind that so much. The people I really get aggravated by are the ones who try to pressure me into it.
I just don’t understand why someone would want to force someone into drinking if that wasn’t their wishes. If you are out with a group of people, and the majority of that group are drinking with you, then why would you try to get the one person who isn’t interested on joining in on that particular aspect of the night to do so, against their wishes?
I am aware that I am not a typical teenager. I rarely switch my phone on, I don’t drink or do drugs and the whole clubbing scene sounds like my worst nightmare. But if I do decide to come out with you, it’s because I care about you. And when people try to force me to drink, I begin to feel terribly rude and that causes me to become depressed. I feel as though I’m being boring by not accepting their offer, and begin to come to the conclusion that by not giving in, I’m somehow dragging their night down a bit. And that feeling seriously sucks.
But I refuse to take a sip of alcohol if it wasn’t my decision. I’m not saying that I’m never going to drink in my life, but I am saying that when/if I do, it’ll be on my terms. Not anyone else’s.
I respect your decision to drink. All I ask if for you to respect my decision not to.
