Hello Sunday Morning (by Callum Spencer)
17/02/10 • 6 Comments

And so three months is over… What do I feel like doing now? Having a drink? Going out and getting smashed? Well… No. My head doesn’t really know what to think anymore. It’s a bit of a mind-fuck really. When I started this three months ago I thought I’d be dying to go out and have a drink when it was all over. But now I’m not sure. It’s been three days since my three months has been over and I haven’t been out yet to have a big night. I’m forced now to think about what I might be like now under the influence. I love that I can go have a few drinks with friends and have that social connection again, but I don’t think I’ll ever need that ridiculous amount of alcohol to be guaranteed a good time. Now that I’ve been out a lot and been [...]

Struggle Street (by Callum Spencer)
20/01/10 • 3 Comments

2 months gone. 2 months without drinking, 1 article in the Sunday Mail, my birthday, 2 music festivals, Christmas, countless nights out and a new years party. All without alcohol. What have I learned? I have no idea. I honestly can’t remember if the person I was in 2009 is anything like who I am right now. I haven’t written anything in so long simply because I haven’t any clue as to what might inspire some change in someone else reading this. So all I can really do is share with you things that I remember over the last few weeks. The things I have noticed most. Parents seem to love Hello Sunday Morning and almost all of them read the Sunday mail. At least the parents of my friends do anyways. “Dude, thanks to you, my mum wants me to not drink for 3 months.” Is it that the [...]

The Real HSM Story.
22/12/09 • 4 Comments

I’m not angry with you. Just disappointed. Yet again an opportunity wasted to promote a cause that might actually help someone. Hello Sunday Morning has helped me in more ways than I can count. Baring in mind that when I say ‘helped,’ I don’t mean with some non-existent but never the less implied alcoholism. This week has made me realise how important it is to clarify that what HSM hopes to achieve is on a much grander scale than just my story. HSM is about supporting young people in making a drastic change in their lives. People my age have had anti-binge-drinking advertising thrown at us for years. By learning about our experiences, we hope to show you – not tell you – about a new way of thinking. We want to encourage discussion, to challenge the way you think about your life, to let deep conversation thrive through differences [...]

The Valley and Me – A Love Story. (Callum Spencer)
10/12/09 • 5 Comments

I don’t have to drink to have a good time. Four successive weekends in the valley and a music festival later, I can honestly say that I no longer have to depend on alcohol for a good night. Each time in the valley I’d come home completely satisfied; I’d met new people, I’d danced and I’d completely 100% been myself. What you saw is what you got. I couldn’t fall back on the excuse, ‘oh I was too drunk.’ Anyone I met was seeing exactly the same person they would see the next day. For me this was the scary part, having to instantly put myself out there, simply because I wasn’t drinking. But honestly, all I really needed to become the person I knew I was, to come out of that shell, was to be surrounded by smiling people having a good time. If there is one thing I’ve [...]

Anniversary and a New Perspective (Callum Spencer)
26/11/09 • 7 Comments

Last Saturday marked an entire year without mum. A fact that I had been thinking about non-stop for the last three weeks. Three weeks just thinking about one night and how I would cope without alcohol. The thought made me feel sick in the stomach. Dad had organised a surfing trip for family and friends to Stradbroke Island. A close group of people my sister and I had grown up with and a collection of my closest mates. I sat around a table with adults drinking wine and friends drinking rums. Previously that day I had asked my Dad for a night of hiatus from my sobriety. He said that under the circumstances I could do whatever I wanted. I waited for a peak in conversation and reached behind me to grab a beer. I can’t tell you how fast my brain was working at that time. I had been [...]