Hi Katie!
Ya know, when I started contemplating sobriety and trying to imagine my life not drinking I painted this whole doom and gloom picture where I would never get to go dancing, go to cookoffs or sing kareoke again. I was sure I was going to be miserable sober. I could not have been more wrong.
At a little over 2 years now I do all the things I did before with one major difference. I don't drink! I found an AA home group that likes to have fun and I have never had so much fun as I have since joining. We go to sober dances, we go out to eat, we go to each other's homes and play games like taboo (now that's a trip, getting a bunch of sober drunks together playing games) and just recently I have taken up kareoke. My soon to be fiance and I went on our first "date" to sing. Since then we go every Saturday and are joined by anywhere from 10 - 15 members. We sit totally away from the bar and drinking doesn't even enter into the picture. We have a blast, we socialize and laugh and then we go home..................... safe and sober. We remember everything the next day. It's so cool. In the summer we go to the river and have bar-b-ques, during the holidays we stay open 48 hours non-stop and play poker.
Life doesn't have to end just because you stop drinking. Life is so much better sober. Get out and enjoy the sober life BUT before you do make a safety plan for yourself. Whenever you go out, make sure you have other sober people with you or confide in someone that you can't drink and why. That gives you extra accountability. If you have a sponsor then call before you go, while you're there and when you leave. Decide in advance what you're going to drink and then guard your drink like a hawk. Don't set it down and risk grabbing up the wrong one. Plan an escape hatch for yourself so if you get squirrely or just can't handle it anymore you are free to get up and leave. Pray before, during and after.
If anyone close to you appears inebriated, watch that person, see how disgusting they are acting and remember you used to be that way too but today you are not and you don't ever have to be there again if you don't choose to.
I hope this helps!
Kellye