103 ways my life improved in 3 years without alcohol

I had my last drink 3 years ago today, on April 13th, 2013.  

Whenever I celebrate these sobriety milestones, I tend to get a lot of congratulations for the fact I've made it some amount of time without alcohol. Which is, of course, a big, huge, wild deal. For the last 1,095 days not a drop of alcohol has passed these lips. Not many people can say that, and being proud I don't drink will never get old.

But if I'm being honest, sober time under my belt is far less interesting and important than what that time actually translates into, which is that part of my life where I finally started living.

I can't say it any better than I did in a previous post, so I'll repeat what I said there here. As far as I'm concerned, my life can be cut up into two boxes. The life before I learned what it meant to not drink, and the life after. The former a slow progression through a tolerable life with a severe longing for something more and a clear sense of never having or being enough. The latter not just …