Yup, my sobriety is 26 years old today! On November 10, 1989, I told my boyfriend and my late BFF that I have to stop drinking. I was only 20.

Every year I say the same message: teens can be alcoholics, too. We’re not always “just being kids.”

If you find that you cannot go a day (or an hour) without drinking, or alcohol becomes a way to medicate yourself against dealing with life, do some serious self-talk. You might have a life-long problem with booze.

You can defeat it, one day at a time. As long as you admit you always have a problem with drinking, you’ll be humble enough not to take risks with temptation.

Now, if you excuse me, I must plot how to get cake into my life to celebrate this day properly.

Sláinte!

/cg

Cait Gordon has been a senior technical writer for high tech and government organizations. Her first novel is being sent to the universe. She hopes the universe likes it.