Our Swords (Gabe Hutchinson)

So this is the end. With one week remaining in my HSM I would like to share with you all the things that I like or even love about being a teetotaller (is that one L or two?).

I once heard that if you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking a beer, it will make beer shoot out your nose. This has instilled in me a great fear of over thinking while knocking back a brew or two. Seriously though, my extended period of abstinence has allowed my mind to operate much more clearly. I’m remembering things I haven’t remembered for years and I love it. My clear mind has also kept me occupied at work. A few times I feel like I’ve been on the brink of enlightenment only to realise that I’ve actually gone mental from thinking about absolutely everything in circles for hours. This is where the improved crainial activity can be a positive or a negative. Arguments with yourself aren’t fun.

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Giving Up The Gun

Today I am entering unchartered waters. I’m going to a music festival and I’m going to be sober all day. I’m hoping the people from Guinness World Records will be there, because I’m probably the first person to ever be sober at a music festival.

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We Are Going To Be Friends (by Gabe)

It’s been a while I know but let me explain…

As you may already know, I’ve been madly saving money in order to spend to latter 6 months of the year in Europe. I realised a few weeks ago, that I could work casually and make enough to get myself over there where I’d then need to take up some more boring work OR I could work my lazy ass like it has never been worked before and do Europe in the lap of luxury (on a beach being served drinks and massaged by scantily clad European women I’d imagine).

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Shake It Out (By Gabe)

I have now completed Week One of this new adventure. So far everything has gone swimmingly. I’m feeling good, I’ve gone surfing everyday since I started (no signs of improved ability as of yet, will update findings next week) and have had basically no desire to drink…which is good…I think.

The weekend posed no real threat to my abstinence. The few brush’s I did have with the devil’s mouthwash were minor affairs and certainly didn’t have me clutching for the bottle.

On Saturday night I hung out with a few mates before chauffeuring them to the nightspots in Mooloolaba. It was surprisingly enjoyable. I thought it’d just be me watching a few drunks make bad jokes whilst having beer spilt on me but it was just like hanging out as usual. We sat around just listening to music, talking crap and throwing insults at one another. Hope still remains for Sober Gabe!

I really do believe that my Hello Sunday Morning journey is going to be an easy task. It seems that there is more to get out of abstaining from drinking than there is to be lost and that is an exciting thought. It’ll mean some big changes but mostly good changes and who doesn’t like change anyway? No one. That’s who!

On an unrelated note, I’m currently scouring the internet for the cheapest flight for my European adventure.

The goal:

• Earn/save $10 000 (already saved $2 500)
• Spend 6 months in the UK/Europe
• Consolidate my Italian language skills
• Go to Reading Festival (huge music festival held annually for the last 30/40 years)
• Go to Oktoberfest in Germany and La Tomatina in Spain
• Spend time in a Kibbutz in Israel (technically not Europe but this is my goal…I make the rules)

If anyone has any tips or must-do’s please share.

Peace my sober friends

Gabe

This week I was listening to Everything To Nothing by Manchester Orchestra, one of my favourite albums of 2009

Introductions are always hard (By Gabe)

Hello Friends,

My name is Gabe, first time caller, long time listener and I am about to begin my HSM journey. I’m 18 years old, a University Student, music fanatic (bordering psychotic) and a social drinker.

I’ve been drinking for a few years now and I’m curious to see things from the other side. Almost all my family and friends are quite partial to the occasional drink so I had a comfortable introduction to drinking.

The first time I had a good crack at the drink (excluding the thrill of a .089mL sip of Dad’s mid strength beer) was in a Pub in Italy. I was 15 and a bit years old and on a school trip through the country (Before anyone asks, the school teachers on the trip did not solicit this chapter of the trip, though it would’ve been memorable if I had in fact been doing keg stands with my personal development teacher). Me and a friend sampled a number of cocktails on the menu and blissfully sang and danced our way home.

For me it was a very strange but exciting feeling and experience. Personally, I have found that in most of the drinking experiences which have followed I have tried to recapture this or a similar feeling and to no avail.

I will be off the booze for the next three months and will use this time to save money, hopefully become a more healthy person and gain some perspective on the role that drinking plays in my life and those around me. I am planning to go to the UK/Europe for 6 months in June, so taking the HSM journey will help me in saving for that trip.

I would imagine the main challenges of undertaking the HSM journey will be giving up the time spent with my friends out at pubs/clubs and avoiding 3am phone requests for taxi services.

If anyone has ANYTHING they want to ask/share with me please don’t hesitate.

Bottoms up

Gabe

PS: Whenever I post something here I will most likely be listening to some type of music. I’ll note the album/artist at the bottom of each post so that if you want to remind me how crap my music taste is or talk anything about music you can. This post’s soundtrack was the seminal punk album London Calling by The Clash.