#11 Reason not to Drink: to build character through misery
One thing I constantly worry about is not having enough character. Sometimes, if life doesn’t throw you enough character building experiences, you have to create them yourself or remain a wishy-washy creature limping along with a tattered exoskeleton instead of a proper spine, no practical understanding of pain or misery, and probably a limp handshake. All my life I’ve been waiting for these character building experiences people are always talking about to happen to me. I know that to be a good writer you need to have a close personal relationship with misfortune and unhappiness. Yet misfortune continually passes over me for other souls. I used to cry at night about it. I used to pray that I might break a bone or lose a job or have to give up smoking so that I could be a fully realized character. Well I’m not waiting around another day – today is the day I do something to make myself unhappy and become the writer I’ve always dreamed of becoming!
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Apparently Fridays are going to continue to be difficult without anything special to look forward to. And by special, I mean beer. I could try to replace it with all kinds of other treats but most treats that aren’t beer are sweet or super fatty or worse for me than beer. I think I just need to live with the doldrums of deprivation. Learn to be ALL UP IN MY FEELINGS about my depressing Friday night sobriety. Like right now. I’m definitely all up in my fucking FEELINGS right now.
Very good writing piece! I hope you won’t be offended that I enjoyed it so much and that it made me laugh!!
Well, thank god it made you laugh because the whole entire thing is satirical.
I figured out by the end that it was satirical but the first few sentences I was thinking “what is she thinking, no character-building experiences in life so far…” the bone-job-smoking sentence finally gave it away – wait, she’s been there, oh I get it!
The Friday and Saturday nights ares tough.
Does your husband drink still? Has he stopped with you? My husband drinks on the weekend does not help me at all 🙁
Tash – my husband is doing this with me. I couldn’t do it otherwise. He has a lot of weight to lose and also wants to scale his drinking back so we’re on the same page. Could you convince your husband to do it with you for a little while?