how to have fun in so many other ways, I love it! I feel like I knew a lot of the "facts" about your life and partying, but never the in-betweens and details. Thank you for being brave enough to share this. Yep, I said brave, which you are! Partying is actually a pretty relevant topic for me right now. Indirectly it affects my life. Dealing with chronic pain has led to me living a life not conducive to partying life of my friends. The biggest reason is timing: I'm crashing when they're getting ready to go. I do feel like I can still go out and party without using substances (alcohol or drugs). I get judged sometimes, but that's other peoples' problem, not mine. I definitely did some experimenting when I was younger, and while I'm glad it happened, I'm not eager to return to it. now you know i'm a boozehound on many days of the week, but i still appreciated this post so much. i didn't start drinking until my sophomore year of college and have watched my relationship with alcohol change over time... first, it was a social lubricant, which is helpful when you're shy and single ;) now it's something i truly enjoy -- i love wine with dinner and am crazy about drinking super fancy cocktails every once in awhile. i do admit that i struggle with my all or nothing kind of attitude with drinking, in that once i start it's super hard