The cork is poped from the green glass bottle, releasing a stream of frothy foam that sprays over your hands and drips down to the tip of your elbow. Glasses are thrust near you and are bumped into each other as people sing and await their next drink.

Courtesy of Myspace.

Behind you are a dozen other bottles that line the counter. There’s a half-empty Captain Morgan, Grey Goose with a red bow tied around the neck, two spent Chardonnays with the corks left on the floor.

People are yelling, swaying back and forth as they try to decide which drink to try next. It’s the New Year, after all, and this is how you celebrate … right?

So often, celebrations are coupled with drinking, which may be a nice Pinot Noir with dinner, or happy hour margaritas that keep on coming, and coming, until you forget exactly how many you’ve had.

As a twenty-something, I’ve been around people who use their evenings to test how well than can hold their liquor. I’m sure you’ve been somewhere where drinking crossed the line of celebratory and tasteful, to regretful and sloppy, too.

Personally, I don’t like being in scenarios where the latter ends up as the result of the evening. There is pressure to fall into temptation and I believe that drinking too much causes us to make poor choices, none of which add a single ounce of joy to your life.

There is this idea that having a “good time” means drinking alcohol, and drinking in excess. But for me, this is a lie. You do not need to drink in order to fit in, to have fun and to celebrate. Getting drunk is not the only means to let loose, be free and social.

When you’re celebrating the New Year this evening, just remember that. If you want to toast a glass of champagne, awesome! If you want to pair wine with your dinner, that sounds lovely. But if you feel like you need to down enough drinks to start feeling fuzzy and tingly, or so that you don’t remember the evening at all, maybe that’s when you need to ask yourself why.

Celebrate your way, not their way.

Listen to “The Lie” by Matthew West. You won’t be sorry you did.