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One Day at a Time: My 17-Year Journey of Sobriety
Seventeen years ago, I made a decision that would change everything. It wasn’t a rock-bottom moment. It wasn’t a dramatic revelation. It was a quiet, unshakable realization that I was done. Done feeling stuck, done numbing my way through life, done wondering if there was something more on the other side of my habits.
The Moment That Changed Everything
I quit drinking on the fourth anniversary of my mother’s passing. She had been a problem drinker, and I saw firsthand the battles she fought. I didn’t want to fight the same war. But back then, I wasn’t ready to quit for myself. I did it to make my parents proud. I knew that if I wanted to live differently, I had to start searching within and commit to becoming my best self — whatever that looked like.
My last drunk wasn’t special. I drank socially, just like always. But that night, something shifted. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And so, I stopped.
The First Year: A Total Reset
The hardest part of that first year wasn’t just quitting alcohol — it was changing everything. My friends. My environment. The way I spoke to myself.
I started reading recovery books, learning about how recovery actually worked, and — perhaps the most difficult part — opening up. I went to meetings.
I surrounded myself with people who had walked this road before me. I exercised. I ate better. I started taking care of myself in a way I never had before.
My daily routine became simple: eat, sleep, work, meetings, repeat. I didn’t have cable TV or internet in that first year, which felt like a punishment at the time but turned out to be a gift. That year was a beautiful, unrepeatable period of self-nurturing. A time of tears, quiet moments, and uncomfortable self-discovery.
I had to relearn how to live. For so long, I had used drinking to avoid my emotions. I didn’t know how to feel. Happiness, sadness, anxiety — all of it was foreign to me. But I kept showing up, one day at a time.
