As the big day approaches, I get less and less anxious. Growing up, this was one of the years to look most forward to. You have 14 where you get your learner’s permit, you have 16 where you get your driver’s license, you have 18 where you turn into an adult and no longer have to listen to your parents (or so we all think until it happens), and then you have 21. The age where you can have your first legal drink.

My 21^st is rapidly approaching, so here’s a couple reasons I’m not overly excited.

1. The smell of alcohol makes me want to vomit as it is. It literally smells like cough syrup or cat pee. You’re telling me to drink that? For fun?! Yuck!
2. Having been pregnant previously, I know what it’s like to puke over certain smells, certain foods, or just every single morning for four months straight. Needless to say, I don’t like vomiting, I don’t like the sounds of others vomiting, and quite frankly, it’s a bitch to clean up.
3. I will have a two-year old. One that I am responsible for. One that I love dearly and would like to spend time with the next day. And the day after that.
4. Hangovers = headaches. I suffer from migraines as it is. I seriously get at least one a month and I’m lucky if that’s all I get. Why would I want to purposefully do that to myself?
5. I will have no friends that will be 21 yet. I’m seriously the first to turn 21 so that sucks the fun out almost immediately. Drinking alone? I’ll pass.
6. I dislike being around people. I’m such a homebody that I would rather drink choc. milk out of a wine glass while watching One Tree Hill for the fourth time instead of being in a bar.
7. I don’t want to be blacked out somewhere in an unfamiliar place around unfamiliar people. The thought of not knowing what’s happening to me or going on around me freaks me out.
8. Alcohol is expensive. Need I say more?
9. I’m terrified of the things I will say if I’m around people I don’t like. I’m an asshole as it is. So, yeah.
10. Alcohol poisoning is a real thing and that scares me. How can one actually know what they’re limit is.
11. McDonald’s always tastes good to me so I don’t need to get drunk to use that as an excuse...
12. Sunday brunches are very enjoyable when I’m not hungover so I mean, can anything compete with that?
13. Alcoholism is a very, very, very real thing. And it can rip families apart and ultimately kill people.
14. People in this world just plain suck. That’s all there is to it.

So, while I am thrilled to be able to buy myself a bottle of wine here or there and go out to the bars once in a while – I’m just not quite sold on the idea yet.