In this Medium post, I celebrate two decades of being sober. It is wild to think that my husband and kids have only known me as someone in recovery. I've been so fortunate to be sober through older adolescence and all adulthood. As this article hints at, things looked really different for me twenty years ago.
After eighth grade, I was chronically truant from school, and eventually stopped going altogether. In January 2001, I was working part-time at our small town pizza shop and feeling like there was little to live for. An intervention later, and I was given the choice to either go to a home for runaway and homeless youth in New Jersey, or (thanks to good health insurance) a drug and alcohol treatment center in South Florida. I kissed that cold winter goodbye, got on a plane, and my whole life changed.
I hope you enjoy this post. It lays out the 20 best living lessons I've picked up over the past 20 years.