An alcohol-soaked office party and the mysterious gift I received 3 and a half years ago.

Photo taken by author

It’s the holiday season and I recently attended the company Christmas party for our branch employees. It was held at a beautiful banquet hall in the Western suburbs of Chicago, with about 150 people in attendance. Within 30 minutes of my arrival, one of our branch’s top executives stepped up to the podium with a bottle of beer in his hand and made it clear that this event was going to be about drinking by guzzling the entire bottle before his speech, which started by encouraging everyone to drink as much as they liked. There were two open bars, and on every table, was a bottle of champagne and 2 bottles of wine that were constantly replenished by uniformed wait staff. Whenever a different executive took the microphone, they made toasts and played drinking games, often dumping their drinks on each other. Coworkers that I think highly of participated and started dancing. I enjoyed watching them doing what most people do at parties; drinking, dancing, and having a blast. I understand most people who use alcohol, though they’re unquestionably using a drug, aren’t addicted, and will never become addicted. A lot of them will have regrettable hangovers after their drug use, but they won’t get addicted. I’m not one of those people. Why am I not one of those people? I’m not sure, but something made me particularly susceptible…