I don’t drink for any other reason than I just don’t care for it.
It’s ironic since I have family members who work in the alcohol industry. Every year at Christmas, someone inevitably places a large wine glass in front of me and proceeds to fill it up until I kindly glare at them. Then they look shocked and respond with: “we didn’t know if this year you might want some.”
I drank during my college years because I really believed that’s how people bonded and socialized, but everyone who saw me drink always commented at how unnatural it looked. It was clear from my body language, I didn’t enjoy it.
When my grandmother died in 2005, I traveled back to Uganda for her last funeral rites ceremony or lumbe (pronounced loom-bey) and discovered that never once in her entire life did she have a drop of alcohol, which is impressive since a strong component of our culture includes socializing through drinking and we even have a local brew made from fermented bananas.
When I heard this fact, something inside me clicked. After that and in addition to my doctor’s recommendation to temporarily refrain from alcohol for health reasons, I made a decision not to drink at all and since then, I have never once doubted my decision.
I just feel much happier drinking a mocktail.
