PSA

[arisha]

So for those of you not in the know, I don't drink alcohol. I made this choice before I was of drinking age and I have kept with it because it is the choice that makes sense to me. I cannot articulate my reasoning any clearer than that, but that's fine; this is not a choice I feel the need to justify. I have no problem with the thought of other people drinking, but I have no interest in being one of them.

Having said that. Obviously I do have friends and co-workers and relatives and acquaintances who drink. This does not bother me, but it seems very much to bother them. I can go months at a time without this being brought up, but then it begins again: "Sarah, we're gonna take you out drinking. I really want to see you drunk, it'd be so funny! I'll take you to my favourite clubs, you can crash at my place, it'll be so much fun!!" A fine proposition, but one that I am sick to death of hearing. Look: I don't drink. You know I don't drink. You know that I have been of legal drinking age for four years and I have never had a drink, or wanted to have a drink. You know I don't see any appeal in getting drunk. I have told you that alcohol just makes my parents sleepy, and is likely to affect me the same boring way. I am so not interested in this plan at all and yet people keep suggesting this to me. My friends are mostly over this stage, but every time I have a new group of co-workers it's the same thing all over again. And how sure of themselves they must be, to think that they will be the ones to change my mind, that they will be the ones I let take me to the clubs. Look, dudes - my best friends have not been able to get me drunk. What makes you think you'll be able to.

I think I just realized that I've been living under the impression that peer pressure ceases to exist once you hit twenty.

Post inspired by an annoyance in an otherwise fantastic last night. A minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless. :|

Comments

[arisha.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but I certainly hope it dies a quick death. It opens up a whole bunch of new issues that I don't feel like getting into when I'm at work. :| It probably didn't show, but when L told me she and J have that stupid bet going on to see if they can get me there, I was pretty pissed off. Apparently I'm not entertaining enough unless I'm uncomfortable, I don't know.

[the-wykydtron.livejournal.com]

Part of me is going, "Oh, no, they don't want to make you UNCOMFORTABLE!" but the other thinking part of me is going, "Well, what else did they THINK was going to happen?" You have expressed in clear, honest language that you do not want to drink, that you are not interested in drinking, and it's kind of like ... okay, their goal certainly isn't to make you uncomfortable, but how do they square that with the fact that you do not want to drink?

As someone who drinks, I have to say that I didn't think about this issue the same way before I knew you, and I wonder if I ever pissed someone off this way and never knew it. The thought process is, arisha = fun, drinking = fun, arisha + drinking = more fun. She says she doesn't drink? But how can she know unless she's tried it?!? She doesn't know what she's missing - come on, have a drink! And I suspect that S and L were doing the same thing. Not that that is an excuse - it's just that they're clearly NOT THINKING. Or, I suppose, not listening. They're not doing you the service of taking you at your word.

Bah. I have definitely been on their side in the past, and I definitely know how hard it is to get through to that side, because the possibility that they could be offending or upsetting you is not even on their radar, because they are talking about drinking and everyone knows that drinking is fun, and those who don't think so are simply waiting to be convinced.