I want to say it out loud: I don’t like alcohol. I know I belong to a rare minority here, but I’ve learned to accept that.

When I was exposed to the concept of parties during high-school, I believed that a party was about enjoying great music, releasing energy in the form of dancing while being in good company. Unfortunately, that was not the case (to say the least) in the parties I have been.

During high-school, the whole experience of a party was pretty different. It had taken place in a very crowded area, the music screamed (as its volume threatened to make us all deaf) and everyone craved for attention, constantly occupied in how others are looking at them. Trying to feel comfortable and open up in such dynamics was very challenging, because deep down it really didn’t feel intimate to me. But – I noticed that for most people, there had been a simple fix to it and that was alcohol. The basic works of alcohol is to blur our senses, lower our self-perception, making the non-intimate “voices” inside us disappear (amongst other things) until we can “truly” be ourselves.

On a related subject, in July 23, 2015 Kepler 452b was discovered. It was the first planet showing high similarities to our earth (therefore it is also named “Earth 2.0”). The discovery sparked my deep curiosity regarding the question of “are we alone” in this vast space. For the sake of belief, let’s suppose we are not and assume that the people from the second earth found a way to travel the ~1,400 light years required to reach our planet. Suppose that they would research how we interact with each other. As they would analyze the blueprints behind social events like parties, they will soon become confused: “These crazy humans, it seems that they go to these ‘party’ things to enjoy and form connections, but they do so by spending much of their energies using some blurry juice they invented in order to be disconnected from themselves. Damn… No wonder they called us Earth 2.0”

No, it is not a black asymmetrical basketball field! It is Earth and Kepler 452b!

And finally, I want to share with you one more experience that I had, that involved me dancing. It was in one of my closest friend’s wedding. I was very happy for him and really enjoyed being with the people in there. In the last part of his wedding my friend asked the DJ for some of our favorite tracks. For me, that moment represented a climax in which the non-intimate feelings I used to experience within myself in past “dancing-related-events” were replaced with an amazing, calm equilibrium. The music was pumping, I was dancing like crazy, jumping all around the dance floor and enjoyed being surrounded by my best friends. Any external supplement that I could have consumed earlier that evening would have taken away my ability to fully experience that wonderful moment. Therefore, as I said, I just don’t like alcohol.