Welcome to another episode of Out of the Pods. I'm Deep Tea.

And I'm Natalie. And happy Wednesday.

Podbesties, the lesson of today's episode is to decenter alcohol from your life.

I love that.

And the reason I'm saying that is because my niece is visiting me and she's 19.

And I have like a whole notes app full of like places to go, things to see.

And I reference this anytime anybody comes to visit me so we can be like

a little tourist in Chicago. And I realized that everything on my list is literally centered around

alcohol. Really? Yeah, like or like it's most of it because you're going to rooftops,

like bars and 21 plus places. And I was like,

okay, I need a complete new list. No, I totally get that. I didn't know alcohol played such a

big part in my social life until I started going on a bunch of dates. When I go on dates,

like I'll have a cocktail or two. Yeah, of course. Like, why not? That's normal. Why not? Like, you just do it to like let loose, you know, it's just part of going on a date in my mind. Yeah. I'm doing my second round of egg freezing next month. So I gave up alcohol again. And the dates that I went on in the last week, I had to text these men being like, hey, I can't drink. Like, I made it a bigger deal than it should have been. And I'm like explaining, I can't drink because, you know, I'm freezing my eggs next month. So, like, you know, we won't be ordering any cocktails. I mean, you can, but I'll be getting a mocktail or like a water. And they're like, okay, like, no problem. And I was

like, why did I feel like the need to clarify this so much? Yeah. And why is a big deal? Like,

why can I just show up and be like, hey, you know, I'm not having alcohol or like, I don't drink?

And that's exactly what I mean by we need to

de-center alcohol. And I think it's from our own minds too, because there's absolutely

nothing wrong with that. And I highly doubt that any of your dates or like anybody minds that

you're not drinking. It's the fact that we ourselves are like, oh, like, what is he going to

think of me if I don't drink? Or like, what if he asks this question? Or he thinks that I'm not fun. It's like, the relationship we have with alcohol is in our own heads. And that's why I'm like, we need to de-center. No, I agree. I think it's because we're so used to, like, when we go out to dinners with our friends, everyone orders a

cocktail for the most part. It's so crazy because my family does not drink. During our family

holidays, no one drinks. There isn't a lick of alcohol in sight at any holiday event or party with my family.

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