Five Years Clear

On choosing a different path—and honoring how far you’ve come

Today is the first day of 2026.

It’s also the day that marks five years since my partner and I made a decision together: to step away from alcohol—not as a challenge, not as a reset, but as a new way of living.

At the time, we didn’t know exactly where that choice would lead. We just knew why we were making it.

For our health.

For our relationship.

And for the children we hoped to have one day.

(We now have three. Life has a way of unfolding.)

In a world where drinking is not just common but expected—woven into celebrations, stress relief, socializing, and identity—choosing not to drink felt like a quiet act of independence. Not rebellion. Just alignment.

Another way of hiking our own hike.

This was never about alcohol being “bad,” or about telling anyone else what they should or shouldn’t do. It was about listening closely to what wasn’t working for us—and having the clarity and courage to choose differently.

What surprised me most wasn’t what we gave up.

It was what we gained.

Clarity.

Presence.

Emotional steadiness.

Deeper connection—to ourselves, to each other, to life as it actually is.

Over time, not drinking stopped being a decision I thought about. It became a way of being. A baseline. A quiet confidence. The mental space alone felt like a gift I didn’t know I was missing.

And perhaps most meaningfully, it became a form of modeling.

Not perfection.

Not control.

Just an example of intentional living.

Of choosing alignment over autopilot.

Awareness over numbness.

Presence over escape.

Five years in, I’m less interested in counting what I’ve given up and more interested in honoring what I’ve built.

Because celebrating how far you’ve come is an act of self-respect.

It’s far more motivating than fixating on how far you still have to go.

Stepping away from drinking has reshaped how I move through the world. How I relate. How I listen. How I lead. How I show up as a partner, a parent, and a human being.

It has been, in many ways, the embodiment of clarity.

So today, I’m not marking an absence.

I’m celebrating a choice.

A path.

A commitment to living awake.

And if there’s anything this milestone reinforces, it’s this:

There’s no one right way to live a good life.

But there is a powerful freedom that comes from choosing what’s right for you—and standing by it.

Here’s to five years clear.

And to continuing to walk this path with intention, gratitude, and presence—one honest step at a time.