Alcoholic relatives

[fuzzygobo]

Our church holds AA meetings every Saturday. Every so often, between working with my pastor, I'll stand at the edge of the room and listen to people's stories, how alcohol ruined their lives, but they found the strength and resolve to put their lives back together.

I'm not an alcoholic, but my dad was. But he let his demons get the best of him, and never made the effort to free himself like these people did, which is probably my one regret about him.

I'm no saint, either. My freshman year of college was a blur of booze, pot, girls, and more booze, pot, and girls. How I still managed to still make the Dean's List is nothing short of a miracle. But after a year of this nonstop partying I had to walk away from it (except for the occassional girl, nudge nudge! but even that lost its novelty after a while).

My dad's drinking put a wedge between us that lasted 20 years. It was only a few months before he died I finally made my peace with him, which I'm thankful I did while I still had the chance.

Whenever I get the chance, I listen to people's stories. Any one of those people could've been my dad.
If fates were different, any one of them could've been ME.

If any of you have an alcoholic in your family, I know your pain all too well. I hope none of you ever fall into that trap. And even if you do, it's never too late to change.

Thanks for letting me share this here. Peace- Brian