While I'm glad that someone found that total sobriety is the best for them, I found parts of this to be a bit distasteful. The times in my life when I overdid it a bit (or a lot) with the drinking, the next day I found myself thinking "wow, I acted like such an idiot last night", not "I could have acted like the same idiot without alcohol".
If I'm at a bachelor party making gay jokes ("no homo"), the amount of alcohol I've consumed is somewhat irrelevant.
What parts did you find distasteful? I was conscious when writing this to keep an air of mtv beachhouse / jersey shore tone in it... That's the kind of partying that has been glamorized and what a lot of people seek out on the weekend.
I definitely don't suggest people act like idiots. I was simply trying to relate to the people that are probably overdoing it the most.
To me, you came across as somewhat of an evangelist. You showed us how much better off you are because you no longer drink, and for all those reasons, everyone else should also stop drinking.
It's certainly possible to have fun while being sober, in fact I think that's how most people have their fun. The fun they experience while drunk is a different type of fun.
For example, your friends are holding beers in the pictures of your partying experiences. You got to experience their drunk fun. If everyone was sober, you may have had a different type of fun. Skinny dipping, for example, is probably a choice made most often when you're not sober. My point is that a lot of the sober fun you experienced, you have your drunk friends to thank for.
"No homo" isn't really making fun of gay people... it's more making fun of people who are homophobes. No offense intended to gay people. Some of the people I love and respect most in this world are.
Ok, so thinking that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality... and only having seen no homo used in a context that was making fun of homophobes... I used that text on an image, but can now understand how that it can be offensive. I changed it.
To be clear, this isn't some White Knight thing, or a gotcha trying to call you out. I think you deserve the chance to get feedback that your words carry an apparently unintended meaning.
See, and I agree with OP on this. The only times I've ever said "no homo" with my friends were in a good natured, making fun of ourselves sort of way. None of my friends are homphobic; we've gone skinny dipping, had wrestling matches with naught but boxers, and it's all fun and games. Maybe there are those frat types for whom any expression of male bonding must be prefaced by "no homo" lest they feel their manhood challenged, but it just hasn't been my experience. It's always said as a way to crack a joke, usually at ourselves, rather than to distance ourselves from some perceived homoerotic threat.
If I'm at a bachelor party making gay jokes ("no homo"), the amount of alcohol I've consumed is somewhat irrelevant.