How did you get started with drugs and alcohol? When I was like 16 or 17 it was the cool thing to do with the kids that I hung out with. I started marijuana first, then the appeal of hallucinating, then meth got involved.
How did you end up at Dallas 24 Hour Club? Richard and Nick told me about it. I was staying with them because Spaghetti Warehouse went out of business, so I didn’t have a job. Without the job I lost my schooling and my place to live. Instead of getting an apartment, they talked me into going to The 24, because I was professing to be an alcoholic. It was at their suggestion, they were very pro 24 for me.
What is your greatest blessing? My family – what family I have.
What is your greatest achievement? I don’t have many achievements, but my greatest achievement would be getting an apartment, having a little bit of furniture in it and still being sober at the same time.
What is one thing you want us to know? The drinking always led to me hard using. It was the downfall. I would choose to drink over anything else and it kept me from doing a lot of things that I felt were my calling. Everything I had in life - I threw it all away. Drugs and alcohol made everything else impossible.
What does recovery mean to you? Recovery means that I am preparing myself from being blind. Recovery repairs that blindness. It's an understanding of how close the edge is to trip and be blind again.
If it weren’t for Dallas 24 Hour Club, I would be: I don’t know. I’d probably be homeless or be spending too much money to live with a bunch of people that are toxic. I’d still be scrounging around trying to find a better life. When you’re around a bunch of toxic people, you run out of reasons to stay sober. I owe The 24 a huge gratitude.