Augie and Merissa have been dating for six years. They met while taking the same global and international studies class at a relatively small, countryside, Church affiliated liberal arts college located in the far Western part of the U.S. While they were basically good pals at first, they finally started dating when they were in their first year of college.
Because both of them came from very conservative backgrounds, neither one of them drank very much beyond the social drinking stage when they first began dating. As the time passed by, then again, they began to go to more happy hours, keg parties, football bashes, and sorority and fraternity parties. As a consequence, they little by little began to drink increasingly more as time passed by.
Their Social Life Regularly Consisted of Going to Parties With Their Friends, Going to Happy Hour With Their Friends, Going to Restaurants Three or Four Nights Per Week, Going to Professional Sporting Events, and Going With Their Friends to the Local Nightclub on the Weekends
After they graduated from college, they both landed jobs in a large city located roughly ninety-five miles from their undergraduate college. Then they finally determined that they would move into the same apartment together.
Since they were far removed from the college drinking scene, nevertheless, their social life commonly consisted of going to professional sporting events, going to restaurants three or four nights per week, going to parties with their friends, going to happy hour with their friends, and going to the local bar and grill with their friends on the weekends. Stated more explicitly, Merissa and Augie started to drink quite extensively.
Now that they were living in the same apartment together and starting to get more serious about their relationship, then again, they started thinking about becoming more responsible, buying a house, getting married, and having children.
With any noteworthy modification in an individual’s life there is generally something that activates the particular transformation in question. For Augie and Merissa the thought of having children and buying a new house was this “vehicle for change.” Simply put, for the first time in their lives, Augie and Merissa began to think about their irresponsible drinking and the long term alcohol effects on their health.
How Would Their Abusive and Heavy Drinking Affect Their Relationship With One Another, Their Ability to Have Children, Their Finances, Their Mental Health, and Their Relationship With Their Parents?
Would their excessive drinking adversely affect their ability to have children? How would they be able to continue spending most of their money on drinking if they were to begin saving for a new house? How mature would they be if they had children and continued to drink in a hazardous and excessive manner? How would they be able to face their parents and tell them about their long term dreams, aspirations, and hopes while they still drank in an irresponsible and abusive manner while having fun as they did when they were in college? What would their heavy and excessive drinking do to their relationship? How would their excessive drinking affect their mental health?
From a different perspective, although neither one of them ever suffered from alcohol poisoning, received a DUI, or experienced alcohol withdrawals, they realized that their abusive and irresponsible drinking was becoming a troublesome issue that they could not ignore anymore.
After Giving Their Situation Considerable Thought, Augie and Merissa Grasped the Fact That Their Dreams, Aspirations, and Goals Would not be Accomplished if They Continued Their Heavy and Hazardous Drinking
All of these inquiries without a doubt resulted in the same conclusion: Augie and Merissa needed to grasp the fact that they couldn’t continue their abusive and heavy drinking if their plans, hopes, and dreams were to be made real.
Once they arrived at this conclusion, they told their drinking friends about their marital plans, about their goal of buying or building a new house, and about their plans to start a family. They also told their drinking friends that they still wanted to pal around with them but that they would be drinking in strict moderation from this time forward so that they could start realizing their future dreams, hopes, and plans.
Much to their disbelief, all of their friends expressed relief because they too had been taking into account the direction of their lives and concluded that their life-styles were much too often focused on drinking. They also felt that they would have to change fundamentally if they were to become more responsible and manifest more thoughtfulness for their health, their careers, and for their goals in the next fifteen or twenty years.
After their heart-to-heart conversation with their pals about their hopes, dreams, and plans, Augie and Merissa essentially started to have more meaningful relationships with all of their buddies. The main reason for this was the fact that all of them had a similar mindset regarding their abusive and hazardous drinking and their relatively short and long-term goals, plans, and aspirations.
Mail this post