10,000 Days: A Few Thoughts on Not Poisoning Myself
And aging like a fine whine.
This is what I’ve figured out after 27-plus years (or 10,000 days, but who's counting?) of not drinking: Sobriety isn't some heroic daily battle — it's just my default operating system now, as natural as breathing or forgetting why I walked into a room.
Here's the thing about sobriety that might blow your mind: NOT drinking is actually the standard human condition. Somewhere along the line, we got it twisted and started acting like regularly consuming poison (the “toxic" in “intoxication" isn't exactly subtle, folks) is normal behavior. (Spoiler alert: it's not.)
Don't get me wrong — I'm not here to judge your drinking habits. You do you. I just can't join you on that particular journey because, well, my destination would be distinctly less fun for everyone involved. When you're drinking, you're going somewhere I literally can't follow without risking everything.
Somewhere along the line, we got it twisted and started acting like regularly consuming poison is normal behavior.
And while we're being real here: nobody has ever actually “needed" a drink. That's marketing copy, not medical fact. Speaking of medical facts — alcohol is the leading preventable cause of multiple types of cancer, but somehow that's not printed on the label between “pairs well with cheese" and “drink responsibly."
Cups / Zeke Moores
Let me acknowledge this milestone without glorifying it: 10,000 days is just math. Though I have to appreciate the irony here — there's that whole self-help theory about how it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. Turns out I've put in 240,000 hours of not drinking. By that math, I should be some kind of sobriety Yoda (“Drink or drink not, there is no moderation”), but the real achievement was much simpler: deciding that my original programming needed a serious update, and then doing something about it.
My sobriety date is September 30, 1997. My story has been told elsewhere.
If this post sparked any neurons … or made you think, feel, or remember you're still capable of both — and you'd like to see more — consider contributing to our coffee fund. Because keeping this brain caffeinated keeps the content coming.
Solo Together / Paula Crown
