<Charlene> I'd like to hear your story Tom. If you have time. It helps me to heart what others went thru
<Tom> Charlene I'll share a little right now
<JFT_BOT> 🐊 RAHHHHH
<Tom> basically I decided in elementary school that I wanted to do drugs, first drug I ever did was LSD when I was 14, but had decided to do it when I was in 4th grade, moved on through all the normal stuff, started shooting dope, went to rehab, relapsed, found myself doing all kinds of really bad stuff with peopel and places where I knew for sure I didn't belong
* JFT_BOT gives voice to Chance
<Chance> Hey guys
<Tom> a white kid from the suburbs should not be hanging out in north philly and trenton, driving around girls in exchange for crack, etc. and at the same time I was 21 years old and teaching Sunday school, one weekend the cops took my car, my mom picked me up in North PHilly and the next morning I was teaching Sunday school, little kids were asking me about Jesus and stuff
<Tom> Chance hi
<JFT_BOT> Welcome to NACHATROOM.ORG, Chance
* JFT_BOT gives voice to chance
<Tom> I had wanted to stop using for a long time, I used to sit on my bed and cry, wanting to be able to show up for normal family stuff without having to leave to buy drugs, but I just couldn't stop and didn't knwo what to do
<chance> Hey Tom
<JFT_BOT> Welcome to NACHATROOM.ORG, chance
<Tom> when I got out of rehab, I really enjoyed NA, but I wasn't serious about staying clean, when I did actually get and stay clean, oct 18, 2005, I completely changed my identity
<Tom> I jumped into NA whole-heartedly, NA became the center of my life, the only goals I had were to get the next color keytag or get to the next meeting, or meet up with my sponsor
<Tom> I went to ~500 meetings my first year clean
<Tom> lived in a recovery house, worked a stupid job, had no money, no girlfriend, voluntarily stayed away for girls for 18 months, didn't look for a car or a place to live
<Tom> eventually all of that stuff was given to me, I just focused on recovery and the small day to day things, and everything else came my way in time
<Tom> I got into service, and for me, I found that service at the homegroup level, reachign out to newcomers, is where I really felt like I was doing something, that and speaking at H&I commitments
<Tom> I've been super focused on recovery ever since
<pyrotech> I do service at the home group level
<Tom> Now I have 14 years clean, I moved from Philly to Austin where I met my wife, we've lived together in Costa Rica for the past 5 years and she is 6 months pregnant with a boy
<Tom> I've been through gnarly stuff in recovery, like my wife has lost 2 babies between 5-6 months pregnant, deaths in the family, stuff like that
<Tom> but no matter what, I stay clean and show up to meetings
* JFT_BOT gives voice to Charlene
<Charlene> Keeps kicking me out. Getting so frustrated
<Tom> one of the best things in my recovery over the past few years is that Costa Rica NA is young, maybe like it was in the states in the 80s, you really do need to drive 2 hours for meetings sometiems
<pyrotech> nice
<Tom> awww sorry Charlene, I was typing all of this stuff cause you asked :)
<Tom> I can pastebin it if you want to read
<JFT_BOT> Welcome to NACHATROOM.ORG, Charlene
<pyrotech> being part of a growing region
<Tom> So the past few years I've gotten to be a big part of of buidling the fellowship here, it is f*king amazing
<Tom> exactly pytrotech!