Beer smells awful and tastes awful (my parents let me have a sip once). How do people drink entire bottles of that stuff?
So I'll share my personal experience with beer since it's relevant. When I was a kid I always thought, 'why would anyone want to drink this?' It tasted awful to me, just like it does to 99% of kids. It wasn't until I was older and some of my older friends started to become of age to drink alcohol that I learned pretty much anything about beer. There's millions of different beers, and every single one of them tastes different. You have to look for the kind that you like. I personally hate Bud Light style beer (bud light platinum is okay) because it tastes like water with this bad, bitter taste to it. It's not worth drinking. I also don't like most Indiana Pale Ales, they're very bitter and hoppy tasting. Dark flavored beers are okay, but they're not something I'd order. I quickly figured out that I like light beers though, since that's what my friends who were also just starting drinking were attracted to. Dos Equis is my favorite beer, it's got this somewhat sweet taste to it without any gross hoppy flavor. It's an entirely different flavor than say soda, but it's not a particularly bad flavor. Red Trolley is a little more bitter, but it goes good with food because when you eat the food it kind of mixes with the bitterness and brings out some more flavor. Anyway, the point of my post is that while beer takes a while to get used to, there's bound to be a beer out there that you won't absolutely hate. There's a social pressure that exists to drink, and even if you say you'll just ignore it, it still feels weird to be sipping a water in a group of 10 people who are all drinking beer. To combat that awkwardness, you'll have to find a beer that you don't hate drinking, and soon enough you'll find that it's really not that bad.