The taste of red jungle juice falls down your throat a little easier than the first sip. You clench the red solo cup that you’d been babysitting all night. The butterflies in your stomach flutter under the pressure. The guy who you noticed since you entered the party is about to leave and you know the chance to act is slowly fading. Should you say something?
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Will he feel the same way? Do you still look good in that dress that your miraculously squeezed into from the mall.
Questions of doubt fill your head faster than you funneled that beer.
Stay focused.
Before you could second guess yourself, you are chugging the remainder of your cup.
There is no turning back.
He takes a step towards the door and you tap his arm.
In a muffled voice, you blurt out the first thing that comes across your mind. “Do you go here?”
I call this liquid courage. Defined to some as the uncontrollable verbal outburst caused by the consumption of alcohol.
The necessary confidence to say the things you want, not holding back from the consequences of your words. Courage could come in the form of leaving the party with no regrets because you said everything that you needed to say. The drunken words can range from kind revelations to friends who made your college memories last a lifetime . Or you could blurt out the less than nice conversation you needed to have with the roommate who still doesn’t understand the concept of asking before eating your food.
Maybe you will tell the most attractive guy in the party that it’d be a shame if he left before a dance with you.
All of these conversations would be harder to have under normal circumstances. You would find your self filtering your words and steering away what you actually want to say.
There has been times where I have had the best of both.
My best-friend in college loved the liquid courage excuse. Normally shy and not one to verbally express her feelings, she decided to have her faithful cocktail of rum and coke. The more she sipped, the more she became one with the night.
Saying all of the things to me that she would never say sober, apologizing for situations that happened our first semester of college and now as juniors she was finally remorseful for. I’m pretty sure that I had already forgiven her. But for her shouting ‘I’m sorry’ in a room full of sweaty hot bodies seemed to be the more appropriate place to do it.
It made me think there is sometimes added incentive to drinking that extra cup of jungle juice.
The added pressure that you have in a conversation sober is gone; you can finally say what you want, with no restrictions and limited regrets. There is no judgment or filter on your words because regardless of how your words will be accepted they will still fall out like the unwanted hangover vomit in the morning.
Don’t get me wrong, sober conversations are the most healthy and sustainable for any relationship. Yet there are times in even your most genuine interactions where you don’t say all the things that need to be said.
You go to reach for the red solo cup and it your confidence fills up.
@amarraboone
