“It’s taken me a while to compose my thoughts on this. Some days I wonder how I got here. Everything still feels very surreal. Life has shifted so much in a year, it’s been a lot to process.

I’m almost 8 months into giving up alcohol and what started as a temporary choice has become a complete lifestyle change. I always dreamt of growing into a confident, outgoing woman who goes after her dreams. Alcohol seemed to promise all that and more at the beginning but the longer I drank for that person became completely out of reach.

I drank to heighten my experiences and all I did was dull all of them. Life was unable to be experienced in glorious technicolor and instead faded to a sullen grey. I was desperately unhappy and all I wanted to do was escape my life on a daily basis. Sleep and dreaming became more preferable to being alive and awake. I was accepting the bare minimum in every area of my life and not being able to recognize I deserved more. Everything was on hold for years.

Until one day I thought something has got to give. Nothing changes unless I do. I was ready for a big change and this was it. It hasn’t been easy along the way and I’ve certainly had to confront everything about myself that I was hiding behind when I did drink.

However, a few months on I’ve been able to shed layers of trauma and become the woman of my wildest dreams. I’ve now grown into a confident, healthy and passionate woman of 29 who goes after life and I’m now someone I feel proud to be every day.

I’ve been able to achieve a lot of personal milestones in 2023 and this is the best year of my life so far. I will always remember this time as the turning point when everything changed. I now know what it feels like to be truly grounded. I’ve been able to make peace with what came before, feel grateful for where I’m at now and also content with the direction I’m moving forwards in.

I decided to choose me and by giving up one thing I’ve gained a whole new world. All that’s left now is to keep climbing because life is precious, fleeting, beautiful, and I’m happy to be here.”