This qualitative study outlines rural adolescents' perceptions of the reasons they choose to use or not use alcohol. The social contextual factors that underlie their decisions are addressed. Twenty juniors and seniors from four rural schools in a North Dakota county were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that the reasons given are similar to reasons given by other rural and non- rural samples although rural communities similar in characteristics and in close proximity can have very different patterns of adolescent alcohol use. Insight into the meaning these adolescents had about their experiences with alcohol is provided.