I am 94 days sober and I am still trying to work some things out. One of the things I am still trying to work out is whether being sober after over-indulging for years is fundamentally different than just always having been sober - meaning am I now one of those people that I used find boring, judgmental, uptight, unfun [insert whatever word you want here because I think most drinkers will find that at least some of the adjectives is one they have thought themselves] or am I different? Is my sobriety richer and fuller than the type that those people have had all along? Or are we really the same now and I've just come around to their point of view?
I should pause here to clarify that I in no way find or found all sober people to be boring, judgmental, uptight, unfun, etc. Some of my dearest friends were pretty much sober people and were more interesting and fun than a lot of people I know, but I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about the other kind, the prim and proper kind. But you know, as I write this I realize that maybe the question, no the whole idea behind the question is wrong.
Drinking vs. not-drinking are probably not a good way to categorize people in the first place. And a sign of the importance I gave alcohol in my life. I mean after all, there are prim and proper boring sober people and prim and proper boring drunk people too, although granted probably less. It is not drinking or the recklessness that goes with it that makes people interesting or fun. For me, it just made them familiar and thus more likable, more comfortable. Like most people I am most comfortable with people who are like me, who I understand and can empathize with. I suppose I don't want to leave those people behind, but I also want to expand my acquaintance with other fun people, the interesting people, the people I like, and those people don't have to drink. They may, but they may not.
