Oh.. To Fit In...

Poor Herbie... His "friends" made fun of him and called him a misfit because he "didn't fit in". This made Herbie sad and reclusive.

My friends love to drink. They, like most adults and young adults refer to "fun" as getting together and drinking thier inhibitions away. I too, like to experience this so-called "fun" every once in a while.. though I feel if it weren't for my friends, I probably wouldn't do it at all. It's thier choice. It's their lives. Anymore, I've just referred to the old saying " If you can't beat 'em, join em" understanding but this type of "fun" still gets on my nerves from time to time.. especially when it affects me directly. I look at drinking like this... I don't see a problem with it in itself.. I see a problem with the road it can lead to. For example, if you say you don't have a drinking problem when you can go out to drink four days in one week, you're lying to yourself. If you ever catch yourself defending the bitter pissy taste as "an aquired taste"... then ask yourself why you ever started drinking in the first place. If you can't recall your actual thought and or reasoning during that time, but are able to remember the visuals of what was around you, ie. where you were , what others were doing etc.. then you just started doing "because everyone else was". Everyone ( i assume ) has enough intelligence to know that alcohol is an addictive drug. It alters your perception of reality and has many negative side effects. It can basically give you an excuse to be a different person than who you are when you're sober, thus making bad decisions, hurting the one's you love and therefore painting a negative image of yourself to the one's you make these excuses for your drinking and it's "consequences" to. I've been to all sorts of parties and all you see is an image of everyone "getting along" and having "fun". When in reality, if all the same people were put in the same room with no alcohol, one could probably speculate that it would take a while before everyone was feeling ok to feel comfortable enough to actually be themsleves. To me, this is sad. I probably seem so judgemental so i just want to say I know this because i've done it as well. I've made stupid choices when alcohol was involved. I just feel i see this bigger picture and i care alot for the ones I love and hold dear to me. If you can think about times you've done things that hurt someone else and your excuse was something like " i know it's a lame excuse but, i was drunk", then obviously you have the intelligence in you to know that it's your choice of where you put your drinking "fun" on your priority list. I wonder how comfortable someone can be with reality and thier true real self if the majority of my "fun" free time i share with them, i recall drinks involved. You hear it at work, you hear it in movies , television, everywhere.. "oh i can't wait to get outta here for happy hour at (*fill in a bar-restaurant-billiard's name here*)!"... or "Oh wow, I'm so stressed out i "NEED" a drink!" etc... Who need's a drink? If you "need" a drink, you've got issues with alcohol. If you go to a place that sells food as well as drinks and your beverage that you choose to enjoy with your food has alcohol in it, then you have an alcohol issue. See, obviously you've become addicted to it's taste, the way it makes you feel, or something you think you're having the life that you have seen so many times to be glorified by hollywood or in ads where everyones smiling and "having a great time". If this is the life you chose for yourself, great. If it starts to affect me in a negative way personally as in, affecting my personal time with you (i.e. - a promise you've made me or to us) etc, that's where i have a problem.