Ten years ago I was drunk and doing drugs on the streets of Chicago. Today I am sober. I’m skydiving to commerate my journey to freedom from drugs and alcohol. I continue to live strongly with bipolar disorder, and I embrace the spirit of aloha, hanging on for dear life.
loha is an ancient spirit that lives and breathes within the Hawaiian Islands. It exudes passion, pulsates with energy, and erupts with joy. It is encircled in light and undaunted by darkness. Aloha is love. Aloha is life. Aloha is empathy. And it’s a mindset that helps with my bipolar disorder.
I have no thirst for alcohol. Today is my sober anniversary. Eight straight years of zero alcohol and zero drugs. I cannot fathom how I made it to this point. That’s two stints in college. My journey offers hope for anyone recently facing the challenge of staying sober.
Up until my sobriety, I neglected my body and soul. I was an antisocial, inoperative sub-humanoid with stale-beer-odored dragon breath. My life was a cesspool, a puke-riddled pigsty and a hellhole of flotsam and jetsam. But all that, my dear readers, is in the past.
I am mentally well: I maintain a typical 40-hour work week while raising two young children, traversing a marriage, pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, and volunteering in a hospice.
Aloha! Today I celebrate six years of sobriety. Six years ago, minus one day, I was drinking two bottles of wine or two six packs of beer and smoking crack with homeless people every night. I nearly got addicted to crack.
