You Don’t have to be an Alcoholic to be Wasted

We drink because it takes the edge off. It relaxes us and releases stress. Alcohol rounds the corners and makes the irritations tolerable. It lubricates what’s stuck and softens our hard spots.

But what if the hard spots are where our exceptional lives? What if our corners and irritations and stress and stuff that’s stuck are what define us and give us the power to be unique and special? There is no shortage of numb-minded zombies sipping their way through life and asking, “Is this all there is?”

What if our more lives in the edges we drink off?

My life has been a disappointment. It seemed just the opposite for a long time while I drank and partied and had no shortage of friends and memorably unrememberable times. College was a blast. I did the minimum academically and graduated with a very appropriate 2.99 GPA — just an ounce of effort short of a B average. I had four years of hard-drinking adventures — both death defying and routinely mundane.

I entered college as a very good student full of aspirations with a ripe and juicy future dangling in front of me. But I didn’t harvest it. Instead, I insulated myself with beer and pizza and vodka and cigarettes and retreated from challenges while drowning my drive to excel choosing instead to nestle into mediocrity.