Being Sober

1. Early Drinking and Consequences:

• The narrator started drinking around age sixteen, experimenting with alcohol while trying to avoid getting caught.
• Early experiences include trouble at school and brushes with authority:
• “Vice principal came up to me… three days in school suspension.”
• This conveys the long trajectory of risk, secrecy, and early missteps.

1. Escalation and Adult Struggles:

• Drinking intensified in the twenties, often daily, especially during life stressors like marriage breakdown and the death of a parent.
• The lyrics show the physical and emotional toll of addiction: hospital visits, rehab, halfway houses, and periods of homelessness.

1. Recovery and Sobriety:

• The narrator is sober for a little over a month—the longest in their life—reflecting both difficulty and hope:
• “Keep coming back, one day at a time, you can be free.”
• The “one day at a time” mantra emphasizes the importance of patience and persistence in recovery.

1. Struggle and Reflection:

• There’s a strong sense of regret and self-awareness about past behaviors, losses, and hardships.
• The lyrics are deeply personal and vulnerable, inviting empathy from the listener or reader.

1. Tone and Style:

• Conversational, chronological, and candid, blending storytelling with reflection.
• Rhyme and rhythm give the lyrics a song-like quality, while the raw content keeps them grounded in reality.
• Emotional shifts—from early experimentation to pain, loss, and hope—create a narrative arc of struggle and perseverance.

Overall Description:

These lyrics are a powerful, autobiographical account of addiction, loss, and recovery, capturing the challenges of long-term substance use and the courage required to pursue sobriety. They are honest, unflinching, and ultimately about resilience and the possibility of change.