week 7: I quit
this week on the little dream farm
Title context coming in just a moment. But first…
Hello friends!
Chris and I are both back on the farm after Chris spent several days in Las Vegas for work and tagged back in while I tagged out to spend several days in Denver, also for work.
Thankfully, both our trips went really well, aside from some travel hiccups for Chris, and back here on the farm everything was smooth sailing for each of our respective weeks of single farm dad and single farm mom duty, as I like to call it when one of us is away.
This week also bought me some time off my phone and away from social media, as my schedule was packed to the brim with almost no downtime. It was nice to have a break in that regard, even if the days were quite long. It was good to be in uniform. It was awesome to meet my team in person since we’re all remote, to be surrounded by Air Force friends and colleagues, and to have the chance to meet lots of new people, too.
The team I’m working on is responsible for improving the overall portfolio and program for a specific subset of Air Force Reservists. If that seems vague, it’s only because it’s oddly clunky to explain what this team does—even when explaining it to fellow Airmen.
But as far as my work is concerned, I am a Public Affairs Officer, so I am typically doing all forms of communications, media, public relations, social media, advising commanders, and the like. In this job, I’m getting to do more strategy planning and implementation, project management, change management, and process improvement, which has been a really fun and rewarding new challenge for me!
So that’s the past two weeks for us.
And as far as this week’s title…tomorrow marks seven years since I had my last drink—seven years of sobriety. Why is that worth mentioning in our weekly Farm Note? Oh, it’s everything!
I’ve had countless people over the years tell me they think about quitting or would like to or wish they could quit or can see the benefits of giving up alcohol. Most of those people talk about what they fear they might lose if they do.
For me, quitting drinking altogether opened the door to so much more. Back then, I thought I just had really poor control and poor decision making when it comes to alcohol. Later, I realized I also metabolized alcohol really poorly—so one drink for me was like being three drinks in for everyone else, and so I never did make good decisions when it came to having one too many.
It clicked for me one night seven years ago while my sister was visiting me in Tampa while I was there for six months for an Air Force assignment. We’d gone out for a drink at a very cool beach bar on the water near a yacht club, and we spent the night dancing on the docks under the stars. I had a glass of wine since I was driving us back to my parents house that night (they lived about 45 minutes north of Tampa back then) and while my mom, dad, sister and I hung out in the hot tub that night, I had this very small, quiet, simple thought—tonight will be my last drink. I’ll go out on a high note.
People ask me all the time—why don’t you just drink less? Many people will understand and identify with the fact that it was never “just one.” So, for me personally, it was and is easier to quit drinking altogether than it is to constantly fight with myself about how to just have one.
My life is so much fuller without alcohol. Seven years without hangovers. Seven years not having to worry about going to fetch my car the next day. Seven years of going home when I’d like to. Seven years of not having to try and piece together the fuzzy events of the night before. Seven years of not regretting what I said or how I acted. Seven years of freedom.
And I share this with you now because I’ve found over the years that so many people think about this and would like to quit but feel like they need some sort of permission or justification. You don’t have to be an alcoholic to have a poor relationship with alcohol. And it’s not hard to see how heavily our society leans on alcohol. So is it a shift to quit? Yes. But for those of us who struggle(d) to feel like you could never get it quite right (this will make sense to you if this is you) then quitting is and can be that ticket to freedom.
So again, how is this relevant to the farm or this Farm Note? It’s because seven years ago in that hot tub with my family, I looked around and thought about how grateful I was for my life and how much I had to lose, and how I was no longer willing to put that in any sort of jeopardy. And every now and then when I look around on this farm and at my life today, I’m so proud of that past me…because it has allowed for so many more blessings to continue to come through. In this regard, I’m so grateful I quit.
After spending a week on the road and at high altitude, I’ve got one key favorite for you this week that kept me on my game.
It’s LMNT.
My naturopath recommended I start drinking electrolytes daily, so I went on the hunt for the very best option with the least amount of crap in it. You’ve got to be discerning with products like these, because companies love to pack all kinds of junky ingredients in something meant to be good for you.
Enter LMNT. They’ve done the research, found the science, and based their product on the fact that we really benefit from more salt than the daily recommendation and that most people don’t get enough magnesium—the two star ingredients in their products.
These are my favorites: grab yourself the 12-ct. variety pack (watermelon, raspberry, citrus, and orange) or the 30-ct. chocolate pack (which you can enjoy hot or cold!) and when you use my link, you’ll get an additional free 12-ct. variety pack for free—win!
I’ve been drinking one packet every day for a few months now and have noticed such a huge difference and improvement in how I feel daily—I can’t wait to hear how much you love it!
Congratulations, it's the realization it needs to happen and then moving forward. I quit when I was 21(the legal age back then was 18). I was definitely on the road to failure. That's 43 years now, and 10 years quitting smoking.
Yay Sarah! Super proud of you, congrats on your seven years sober 🎉😁