Sober Girlies
This past week my mom drove up to LA to hang and check out Cait & I’s new place before embarking on a 5-week long trip to Indonesia. She came in hot, guns blazing, with a bottle of dealcoholized rosè. As we sat around the vintage light-up resin table in my dining room, I couldn't help but reflect on how much has changed over the past few years.
In 2020, when I finally decided to remove alcohol from my life, my mom and sister were very supportive. They ultimately knew it was the best decision for my evolution. They were not ready to set down their glasses (nor did I think they needed to). Still, they remained exceptionally considerate whenever in my presence.
About two years into my alcohol-free journey, my younger sister, having recognized the positive changes I experienced, began questioning her relationship with alcohol. She couldn't stand hangovers and the perpetual cycle of binge drinking that had become ingrained in her during high school and college. Seeing my commitment to sobriety, she realized that she, too, could break free from this cycle and live a life liberated from the constraints of alcohol.
As my sister and I embraced our fun, functional a/f beverages at family gatherings, our mom continued to nurse her glass of rosè. But in these last few months, she's become increasingly "sober-curious." My mom rarely had more than one or two glasses of wine at a time, but even that had a lasting negative effect on her the next day. Mainly, she recognized how deeply it affected her sleep, particularly her REM cycle. Driven by the desire for better rest and overall health, she decided to ditch the booze.
Now that we are all sober girlies, we connect over new fun beverage finds sans alcohol and soak up the glory of our hang-over-free life. The thing that once seemed like a connection point has taken on a new meaning after we cut it out of our lives.