So it’s been told by some that if you ain’t drinking, you ain’t living. Call me the uber-conservative type, because yours truly may not necessarily be “living.” And that is fine by me.

Living in one of the most notorious places for the drinking culture (and it’s totally OBVIOUS), there’s never been an interest on this end of things, ever. Simply put, alcohol consumption has never been a practice and will continue to be as long as it can be maintained. This is essentially what a “teetotaler” is, a person who never drinks alcohol.

Now, there are those that will swear by it: drinking is (society wise) one of the most profound ways to meet with people and have a good time overall. The flip side of that is it can cause serious or severe impairments including drunk driving (infamous in Wisconsin), lack of mental awareness and internal health issues such as the liver. It’s a part of how my paternal grandfather passed away. Other relatives have passed away in part due to contributions of excess drinking weakening their systems which brought in serious complications of other diseases.

Neither of my folks have gone this route that a clean majority of extended family members have. So, many times, being in a town where just about everyone and their mother and father drinks, it can be seen as a rather lonely experience for those that don’t. This could be added further into sentiments regarding fear of pressure from contemporaries (e.g. friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.) to go out to places where you know alcohol could very well be all over the place.

Fortunately, there are many examples of notable celebrities who have had a seemingly healthy social life being teetotalers themselves. Celebs such as Demi Lovato, Tyra Banks, Zac Efron, Tom Holland, Chrissy Teigen and Gillian Jacobs (personal fav).

The thing about it is it’s not so much the inability to not drink at all. That’s kind of the easy part. It’s the questions and concerns of others that may see someone like myself as a strange, weird and unadaptive phenomenon. But even with this, the stance remains strong: don’t have the desire to partake nor the care for the smell such hard liquor.

I still do wish to have a somewhat decent social life without regret sooner rather than later where I can do my thing without the pressures of consuming the hard stuff. There is also knowledge of folks who believe soft drinks like soda are considered a worst alternate. In its defense, my system can take certain sodas better than others. The lighter kind usually works best as it actually helps clear up lingering acid reflux. In the end, any drink, including even water, could and probably should be taken in moderation. Too much of anything could possibly end up being a concerning issue.

What does help make this a lesser isolated experience is the introduction to non-alcoholic drinks like “mock-tails,” for example. There are venues around that provide these, and more are starting to come in even in historically alcoholic venues. So the experience could still be there, the plus would be to have other options for the likes of those like yours truly.

I wanted this to be as simple a reason as possible. For some, maybe it is. But I wanted to be as thorough as I could. Though I’m not really close to being considered “straight edge”, there certainly are some things that could be one or two away from going full-blown. One lasting example is I don’t possess any tattoos, never cared at all for them like that either. That, too, being a personal reason.

Either way, I still remain me, for better or worse. Understanding from others of this is borderline subjective.