Why I quit drinking

The year is 2018.

I'm 20 years old.

I'm a student at the University of Newcastle.

My major is in Social Sciences.

Every weekend I go out partying with friends.

I go to class one day, hungover. A headache so large my usual routine of panadol, caffeine, sugar and cigarettes doesn't fix it.

I stare at the ceiling, listening to a professor lecture about long division. I can't pay attention, I feel sick. I have to leave halfway through.

I'm so behind on homework, I can't figure out why I can't keep up.

I decided to calculate how much time I spend drinking alcohol.

I go out friday night, that means saturday morning I'm hungover.

I go out saturday night, that means sunday morning I'm hungover.

Sunday is the biggest night of the week in Terrigal, that's when everone from high school gets together at the beer garden. So monday morning I'm hungover.

There's 7 days in a week.

Friday, saturday, sunday, half of monday.

That's 3 days I'm drunk or hungover.

That's 40% of the week I spend drinking.

Is this really who I want to be? I asked myself. If I could have anything I wanted, would it be to spend half my life drunk?

I was an avid skateboarder, most of my friends were skateboarders, I spent every spare day at the skatepark, even between classes I would skate.

I had been watching a YouTuber, Dale Decker, he spoke of being a drug addict as a teenager. He joined the Straight Edge community and got sober, he attends AA meetings regularly.

I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes, but whenever I drank I would relapse. I knew quitting had to be done together.

Dale influenced my decision towards sobreity a lot, he was someone I recognised.

The final straw came at a friends birthday party. It was her 21st birthday.

We were sharing on facebook that none of us had money, no one in the group had over $100 in their bank account, but we were going to meet to celebrate with drinks anyway.

I grabbed a beer and went to the train station, it was freezing cold and raining, I was alone and about to catch a train to a party none of us could afford.

I sat, I took a sip of my beer, then walked home. That was the last time I would drink for fun.

There have been exceptions.

My partner told me her father (who is Japanese) has a tradition of wanting to drink beer with his family.

Alcohol is a large part of Japanese culture.

Since it's not my territory I followed the rule when in Rome.

I considered it the polite, friendly and sociable thing to do, not because I wanted to.

In 7 years, I've been drunk less times than you can count on one hand's worth of fingers.