A year can change a lot in someone’s life. A year can take you from chaos and destruction to control and balance. A year can be the difference between just existing and living a real life. A year is what you make it, and it was up to me to make the most of it.
I’m coming up on one year of sobriety and I couldn’t have guessed what was waiting for me on the other side. I have an entire new group of friends and support, I volunteer at Thrive, I’ve become emotionally and physically stable, and I’ve built a sustainable plan for continued recovery. The process wasn’t unlike a long flight of stairs halfway covered in a thick fog. I couldn’t always see where I was going, but I knew the steps to the top floor of my sobriety skyscraper were there. I didn’t really have to be afraid that those steps weren’t there; all it really took was the courage to have faith in the unknown and climb with all of my newfound strength.
The unknown is a strange concept to navigate, especially in early recovery. It’s both frightening and exciting at once. It’s one part of my life that I had to accept with open arms if I were to move forward in any sort of positive direction. What helped most is having the proper support and guidance around me to push me, sometimes not so gently, toward the recovery I deserved. The team at Thrive, my new sober friends and family, my fellowship in the recovery community, and most of all, my faith in my own worth and capabilities, brought me to a place of peace and love.
A year in recovery doesn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t help but take solace in the stability I’ve created through the main thread in my recovery: connection. The relationships I’ve made with the other sober passengers in my recovery bus have made the ride not just tolerable, but rich and fun. We can’t do this alone, and “we” means all of us. We need each other. We need each other’s presence, wisdom, hope, and faith. We can count on places like Thrive to provide the safest environment to explore ourselves and grow. The only one holding me back was me, but a year later, my life has changed for the best.