NO SHAME –
Jan. 30, 2026 – January 2016, a decade ago this week, was the last time I drank. Not that I knew it was the last drink at the time. “Never again” was as much part of my vocabulary as “shall we get another?” (a rhetorical question). I didn’t really mean to stop drinking and taking drugs, mostly because I didn’t think I could. Getting wasted, blacking out, tears, tumbles, unexplained bruises, strangers’ kitchen tables at dawn: it wasn’t just what I did—it was who I was. Until it wasn’t. That January I finally hit my “rock-bottom,” which didn’t look that much different from the hundreds of other rock-bottoms that had come before. Something about this time, however, shocked, scared, and plainly bored me into action. With the help of some good, generous, patient people I started over, and began my sobriety journey.
That is where the story normally stops getting told. I was Bad and now I am Good. Chaos replaced with order, darkness with light, cigarettes with green juice. It’s an uplifting tale with a tidy resolution, a satisfying narrative arc with an inspirational message to take home. Look, everything worked out! Roll credits. The End.
