Taking A Stand

My peers and family have always known me as the “good girl.” And you know what? That’s perfectly okay with me.

My weekends usually consist of shopping with friends or going out to dinner and a movie with my family—not attending those infamous house parties and experiencing the incessant pressures to drink alcohol. Drinking has always been something that I consciously choose not to participate in. It has been something I’ve tried to stand up against my entire life, and I will continue to do so. Despite the relentless pressures I will face throughout my life to “just take a sip” and “live a little,”. My morals and values allow me to make that personal decision to stay away from what I believe to be wrong.

My religion strictly bans alcohol.

Thus growing up in a household where it has never been around, alcohol has never been a desire of mine. What keeps me consciously away from it is the notion that nothing good comes out of drinking alcohol, so why do it? Why start something that has the potential to turn into a life-altering habit that can lead to making bad choices and the ability to lose control over actions?

In addition to my moral obligations to stay away from alcohol, realizing the consequences of drinking and how it can affect one’s longer mind and body helps with making this personal decision. Alcohol can have damaging effects to health, including an increased risk of cancer, liver disease, high blood pressure and brain damage.

Not only can alcohol negatively affect health. It has the potential to alter judgment, leading to bad decision making, such as drunk driving. Which can affect the rest of many people’s lives.

In this case, not only is the drinker in mortal danger. Other innocent lives are put into jeopardy, leaving the drinker room for a life full of regret and the words, “If only”. The last thing I would want is something that could control my mind. Only I can control my mind. For the sake of my future and other people’s future, I choose not to drink.

– Zainab Dhanani

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