EARLY RETIREMENT

At 35, it is too early to retire. Uhmmm.. it depends to the retirement. 

One month ago, I decided to stop drinking alcohol for good. 

***

I dunno know. Anywhere you go and whoever you're with, it is inevitable that you talk about on drinking session, when you learned to drink and how much you can at your peak. Thus, sharing it with you means telling the same story for hundredth time. 

People get the impression that I'm a heavy drinker. Thank to the genes.  For quite some time I can say I was a lasengero (drunkard), but the heavy drinker was and has always been a trick. I can stay uplate and upright in the sessions primarily because of strategy.  

Drinking was the last thing that's expected of me when I was young. My father didn't drink at all. People must have thought that I was in very wholesome set of friends to learn about that. I have always believed in trying to fit in is not a negative trait but  I always know who I am. Drinking is something I did because of peer pressure and but realized that it's part of who I really am. I really love conversations and being carefree to show where I come from. The best of all, it gives excuses to be mayabang which something I kept away in real life. 

My earliest memory of San Miguel was around high school. For odd reason, there were left over beer in the ref after fiesta. I asked my aunt if I can have it. When I tried it, I didn't like the taste and dismissed the possibilities that we can get along in the future.

Fast forward 2014 - at 35 years old, I am saying goodbye to a significant part of my life, which is possible as I see it.

***

I list down few highlights of the things I remember about.

1. I always brag about not blowing at the session table. That's true because I can manage to do that in the CR, come back and pretend nothing happened.

2. In my late teens when no one was inviting me for a drink, I buy on my own. I drink beer in can alone inside the CR in our home.

3. As I remember, It was only twice that I was not able to go home because of being drunk. The worst was I really don't remember what's between the town fiesta where we drink and my friend's room where I woke up.

4. I stood as groom's man once on my friend wedding where the inuman started after lunch. Among the barkadas I was the only one who were there early because I was of the part of the entourage. I had to join the groom's other set of friends. By around 5:00, I started texting my friends - Putsa nasan na kyo? Lasing na lasing na ko di pa rin kayo dumarating!

5. It was on my 21st birthday that first time na may inuman courtesy of my brother who was in first first job by that time. On my last birthday, he also prepared for the inuman when I no longer. I just join his friends but I was never convinced to take even a single drop.

6. My first official taste of gin was at my friend's house. I usually find his father taking his daily sip of alcohol whenever I go to his house. He once asked me if I do drink. The next thing I remember, my brother and sister had to picked me up because I was so wasted. On our way home, my kuya does not want to alalay me. he told me, that's something I have to learn - to still manage to walk home. My sister on the other hand was asking if I have a problem. I don't have a problem. I just took the opportunity of the first time I was offered to drink. I had seven shots.

***

Anyways, our office has a benefit for annual medical exam. I availed of that last December and found out my creatinine is beyond normal. The next day, I join the office's social party and decided that the Red Horse I drank that night was my last.

This was around the same time an office mate underwent his first sessions of dialysis.