The college years.  Like lots of college students, every Thursday through Saturday night I was tearing it up in the bars and clubs.  And then Sunday through Wednesday I was making awesome grades, serving in leadership positions, doing lots of community service and playing in my college symphony orchestra on scholarship.

Then after graduation, I moved from South Carolina to Tennessee in 2004.  I had met a guy through mutual friends.  He was a student at the University of Tennessee and I moved to Tennessee because I just knew he was “the one”.

I connected with him on so many levels and thought we had a great relationship. Yet since he was still in college, he was still into the party/heavy drinking “phase” and that lifestyle was starting to grow a little old to me.

He was scheduled to graduate from UT in 2005 and I knew at that point the drinking and constant partying would stop.  But it didn’t.  And that became a huge fight between us.

After all, I drank a lot in college, so what was the big deal? I was asked that question a million times.  But this was different.  I’m not talking about the “social” drinking kind of drinking here. I am talking 100 beers in four days kind drinking.  And yes, I counted all 100 bottles.

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