Everything that you go through in life is just a phase.
The most crucial thing in the phases of life is timing. Getting bruises when your were eight years old, first crush at 12, first kiss at 16, first hangover at 18, first menthol drag (as endorsed by America's favorite cowboy) at 20, knocked up/get hitched at 26, hypocritically sing-song the familiar "when I was your age..." at 36, retire at 47, first grand kid at 50, and so on until you die at 92 (or over). Everything is always set by the tide of life.
So if sobriety is an unknown terminology at the age of 26, then I guess you're still doing okay. It's a compulsory fact that everyone has to fall once or twice in this lifetime.
Whatever foolishness you've done is not even half of what I got myself into when I was your age. Fool around, take advantage of your mortality, I will let you be. But NEVER ever forget where you came from, because whenever you fall, I will always hoist you. Whatever happens to you in life, make it a lesson to be passed unto your children, not to scare them or to avoid them from treading the same path, but to make them realize that life is NEVER cruel, and that it's always our doing whenever the darkness consumes our sanity.
Like I said, We are our own salvation.
