Is sobriety all that bad?

Catherine Sargent, Lifestyle Editor

Alcohol is, arguably, the linchpin that holds student life together. It forges friendships (sometimes a little too well), it prepares you for an ‘amazing’ night, and it makes the journey home from Sankeys seem to go really quickly. Despite this, I have decided to give up alcohol for the month of November. Yes, really.

The reasons for doing this are threefold; firstly, that my bank balance needs an injection of love (it has been, for too long, assaulted by the haunts of Fallowfield), my liver needs to be given a break following the carnage of the first two months of university (and the summer, and first year…), and I need to stop blaming drunkenness for my mistakes. You see, like most people, I have a habit of doing/saying/thinking stupid things when I drink, and it is for that reason, above all others, that I will be giving up alcohol.

Of course, by the time you read this, I will be significantly into my term as a sober person. I may have given up; I really hope that I don’t though. Last night, I went out for the first time as a sober person (At the time of writing, it was one week into the challenge) and decided to brave Confessions at Queen of Hearts and a house party. What I found, on this first outing, was that it wasn’t that bad. The bit that I missed about drinking was the holding a drink, my hands felt empty.

Buying a Coke, something that the barman didn’t understand, asking me numerous times what alcohol I wanted with it, quickly solved that. Was it so strange that I had chosen not to drink? The dancing was also a very strange experience. Normally, in order for me to move my limbs around to a rhythm, I have to be seriously intoxicated. It was actually quite fun being sober and giving it a go. Despite these initial successes, I look on the rest of November with great trepidation; I have gigs, birthdays, and Warehouse project to get through without touching a drop. Surely though, the best possibly conclusion to come out of this experience will be seeing student life, really seeing it, for the first time in a very long time.