This One Time I Turned 32 and Called a Time Out on Drinking

Well, let's just ignore the fact that I haven't written a post since February. My only excuse is travelling to Canada twice, moving into a new apartment, spending the month of July responsible for over 60 teens in Barcelona, constantly playing catch up with work and friends in between trips, organizing an educational fair for over 300 students in September, a quick work trip to Sao Paulo and well, that pretty much brings us to today. 2016 has kept me going at an unreal pace and I have very gladly been slowing things down since the beginning of October. Despite all of this, I'm not going to write about any of those things that kept me busy. I want to write about an article that I read recently and how it inspired me to take a break from drinking alcohol.

A couple of girlfriends on Facebook posted this article called, “The Real Reasons Why Women Drink.” I read it and immediately had a reaction, although I couldn't tell if it was positive or negative. I can't say that I wholeheartedly agreed or disagreed with the article, but it left me asking myself a lot of questions. I wanted to discuss it with friends and hear what they thought, so I shared it on Facebook and I brought it up with other women in conversation over the next few weeks.  In the article, the female author tries to connect feminism and women drinking. She suggests that women drink to cope with a sexist and macho world, where we are constantly trying to keep up with men and out do them, plus out drink them. She touches on modern culture surrounding women and alcohol, and describes her experience after abstaining from it. 

What I most liked about the article or what it most left me thinking about was HOW MUCH we drink and HOW MUCH we encourage each other to drink. Forget the gender aspect for a second, how many times do we finish a tough day with a drink and what if there are more tough days than not? How many times do we start the weekend off with a drink? (I've often said, that, that first drink on a Friday tastes the sweetest.) Then I started to think about how rarely I don´t drink. 

Girls dinner on a Sunday night, one of my last drinks.

Once a year I don´t drink for about four weeks, when I'm working with groups of teens abroad. Then another two to four weeks during the year I don't drink because I'm cleansing. The rest of the time, it's a birthday, holiday, trip, dinner, party, rough day, girl's night, date night, a Wednesday, and well the list of occasions to drink goes on and on. 

Even more frightening, I asked myself, “When is the last time you went more than four weeks without drinking?” I didn't even know what the answer was, probably never.

And that was when I decided to take a break from alcohol. It started September 1^st and it will end December 1^st – in total it will be 91 days. Here is what has happened during this dry three month journey:

Day 1 – We have a work dinner with colleagues that are in town visiting, and we are celebrating a successful student event with beers and pizza. I celebrate with coke and thankfully no one questions me. I feel a little anti-fun.

Day 5 – I wake up feeling hangover, but not from drinking, am I detoxing? Am I in withdrawal? I tell myself to get a grip. 

New conference friends in Sao Paulo - hotel bar hanging.

Day 8 – I´m texting a friend saying we should get together for drinks and catch up, I rewrite my text to say that we should do coffee instead.

Day 9 – I go to a dinner and show with girlfriends, it´s a set price menu that includes drinks, I wish my water were more expensive. 

Days 22-24 – I go to a conference in Brazil for work and everyone is drinking, the caipirinhas are flowing, non-stop. I feel super anti-fun and since these colleagues have just met me, they probably actually think I am anti-fun. 

 

Day 45 – My friends finally seem to know and remember that I’m not drinking. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of explaining myself every time we got together!

A very sober and glowing lumber Jill at Halloween!

Day 46 – My good friend Dan jumps on the bandwagon, "Yay, I’ve recruited!" We start drinking juice and pop in solidarity at get togethers with friends. 

Day 59 – I have so much fun at a Halloween house party, on a natural high, because I love costumes and dancing. I feel like a kid again. 

 

Day 62 – It’s November! I am plotting my first drink already, with a month still to go. My fantasy includes my favourite bar for craft beer and a nice amber on tap *drool* (insert low lighting and a cute boy, it is a fantasy after all!)

 In addition to these moments, I have declined invitations to day-trips and events, three bodega visits and two craft beer festivals to be precise. I thought this was the perfect time of year to do this experiment, after my birthday and before Christmas, but it turns out we drink up all year long! 

Besides repeatedly sharing with people why I’m not drinking, only after they ask, the second most common question has been, “But, did you drink a lot before!?” People seem to think that I must have been on the verge of alcoholism if I thought I needed such an extended break. Interesting?

What does it all mean though? Have I learnt something profound? What was gained by repeatedly declining alcoholic beverages? Although I’ve had these questions in mind the entire time, I feel like they’ll be better answered once the three months is up and I get to choose when to accept and when to decline a drink. 

So with ten days to go, I raise my water bottle and say, “Salud!" I will report back in December.