To each his own. If you are staying roughly within the law and aren’t harming others, then what does it matter? Stay within your comfort level.
Having said that, outsiders like me are still free to judge you according to our own standards. Personally, I would assess you as sheltered and naive. Tobacco and most illegal drugs have such a bad rap these days that I can sort of sympathize with a 27-year-old who hasn’t tried either of those. But peer pressure and social pressures to use alcohol are so ubiquitous in society that it’s hard for me to imagine the mind-set of someone who hasn’t even tried it once (unless because of purely religious reasons). You said that you abstain “…since I realize that my judgment and health could be impaired…” I assume you’re aware that trying a single beer or even two won’t impair your judgment or health any more than staying up a couple hours past bedtime one night.
Basically, I would be curious to know how averse to risk you are in other areas of your life as well. Let’s say that you lead an active life in other most other ways, venturing reasonable amounts of risk as warranted—for example, you take risks in love, in recreation, in business, and in the home, but you avoid tobacco, alcohol, and drugs (TAD) out of some kind of “my body is a temple” philosophy. Then I would likely give you a pass on that last part and agree that you’re merely prudent when it comes to what you put in your body.
But if you tend to be more than ordinarily risk-averse in many other areas of your life besides merely avoiding TAD, then I would start to wonder if you’re getting your money’s worth out of life. I would then call you sheltered, and possibly even naive. Judging by my own standards, of course, I tend to believe that life is for enjoying. I like to get around, sample experiences, and take some risks if the reward is right.
I realize there are trade-offs to a lifestyle weighted toward sensation and risk: I’ll probably have a creakier old age and die a little sooner than a more risk-averse version of me would. And my lifestyle requires a certain kind of self-discipline from me: It’s up to me to know when and how to stop drinking for the night, or cut back on the number of cigarettes I smoke per day, or save money toward retirement as opposed to spending it on immediate gratification. But I’m comfortable making those choices. Those additional responsibilities and trade-offs are part-and-parcel of a fun and interesting life for me.
But all my rambling about my own values is really just a footnote to my main message. Really, it’s not my business what you do with your life. You may get just as much enjoyment from the rational and thoughtful ordering and planning of a risk-averse lifestyle (if that describes your lifestyle, in fact) as I might get from the chaos of a hedonistic, risk-embracing lifestyle. And that is fine. I think that the bottom line is what I said in my first paragraph:
To each his own. If you are staying roughly within the law and aren’t harming others, then you shouldn’t need to apologize to the world for your choices. Stay within your comfort level.
