"Cyrus, this is super. Take a sip." I still recall those words from my university roommate and friend one evening at a restaurant as he extended his bottle of alcohol to me. He said it convincingly and in a somewhat cunning intonation. We were in the second semester of our first year. We had just settled into campus life and were now spending some time celebrating our high school victories and the fact that we'd made it this far.

At the time, I was undergoing several other transitions in my personal life. One was that I had just found Christian Science and was devotedly applying its teachings. All my life I had not taken alcohol, and I was now gaining spiritual affirmations about why I should continue not to consume it.