You’re at a party. Pretty much everyone in sight is wasted. A couple of upper-year guys are doing unassisted keg stands. Groups of students are crowded around a ping-pong table watching a tiny orange ball fly into a red solo cup. It’s 1:30 A.M., but everyone has so much energy.
How on earth do you reach that level of zing without chugging down every alcoholic beverage in sight? Are people staring at you? Do they think you’re a bore?
News flash: You can still have fun sober
One of the biggest concerns people have over not drinking is feeling left out. But you don’t have to swig vodka shots with everyone else around the table to feel included.
Arielle Masur, a fourth-year criminology student at Carleton University, said she is still a party person even though she doesn’t drink alcohol.
“I have health issues, so I always feel sick after I drink,” Masur said. “I tend to drink water when I’m playing drinking games—it keeps me hydrated. I can still be involved with that whole party climate and vibe and not exclude myself.”
But it’s not always easy to immediately reach that level of energy without feeling uncomfortable at some point, even for an extrovert like Masur.
“The first few times were hard and kind of awkward, but I’m so used to it by this point—I know how to interact,” she said. “It gets easier with practice and now, I don’t need the buzz.”
Hearing people talk about their wild, lit weekends might make you feel like you’re missing out on some vital experience, but Sebastian Lopez-Steven, a first-year Carleton health sciences student, said sober nights out can be just as entertaining.
“Honestly, it’s fun just listening to what [drunk] people say,” Lopez-Steven said. “People are more honest, more open. I enjoy hearing what comes out when they are less closed off.”
No post-drinking consequences
“I can be the life of the party, I can dance until I’m exhausted, and I can wake up the next morning and function as a human being,” said Ruvarashe Godza, a third-year engineering student.
According to both Godza and Lopez-Steven, the best part about not binge drinking is facing no consequences.
“Personally, I find more happiness in remembering a night, not stumbling home after it,” Lopez-Steven said.
“I feel more in control, just because I know exactly what’s going on around me,” Godza said.
Nervous? Tips to party sober
According to CU Don’t Know, Carleton University’s alcohol awareness campaign, most people won’t care if you’re not drinking at a party.
But since sober partying isn’t the norm, here are three tips for sober success:
- Willingly involve yourself in what people are doing if it looks like fun, like drinking games. Don’t wait for people to ask you to join them—you’re there to enjoy yourself.
- Don’t be too self-conscious about being the only sober one at the party. Chances are you’re not!
- Be open to the experience of being sober at parties. Don’t rely on the common mantra of needing alcohol to have fun.
A sober night out doesn’t have to be an awkward, boring event. And even if you enjoy getting wrecked every week, one sober night might make you see things in a different light.
