I don't drink. Yeah, I'm 18 and I don't drink. I don't plan to drink in the near future either.

Being 18 is a lot of fun - you get to make more decisions of your own, you get to watch M18 movies and most of all, you get to buy cigarettes and alcohol legally. I said legally because, come on, we all know turning 18 only means that you can now legally do the things you've been doing since you were 14. Lolol.

Anyway, now that I'm 18, more often than not, I'm pressured into drinking. I do feel this immerse pressure because most of my closest friends drink pretty often and they bond over drinking. Which is something I don't prefer. And because of this, I pretty much drifted away from that circle of friends because the only time they meet up is to drink.

"Come on, just try it. You'll grow to like it!" I hear this counter too often when I say I don't wish to drink. I have nothing against drinking. But I just choose not to after this particular incident: someone close to me committed suicide after he got presumably drunk because he was upset about something. He was the favourite son, his family mourned over him for months and his mother went hysterical. Neither the family nor his mother has been the same since then.

How can I bring myself to drink knowing that the consumption of alcohol caused this? I can't. 

This, coupled with the fact that I never particularly find drinking cool, are the main reasons I don't drink. I don't think it's attractive that you are so drunk you are unable to get yourself home at the end of the night and there's nothing commendable about not remembering what you did last night. Is that supposed to impress anyone?

While my friends boast about "getting a hangover the entire weekend," I can't help but be glad that my weekend wasn't wasted away like this (no pun intended). Of course, when you're 18, you are expected to be be smart enough to weigh the risks and benefits for yourself.

I just wish alcohol isn't so socially promoted that you get branded as a "nerd" or "being too uptight" just because you don't drink. I choose to stay in with a good book instead of drinking because I believe there are better means of bonding with your friends such as talking over dinner, shopping or even just a sleepover.

Drinking isn't for everyone, and it's certainly not for me.

I'd very much prefer Starbucks.