Gifts of the Program

Written by, Terri R.

I got my nine month chip at a Glendale MA meeting this week. I am the type of person who reflects on my progress whenever I reach a milestone like this. Course, I am very proud of myself. However, I’m also thinking of all the gifts I received from the program in the past nine months. Not only do I have my sobriety, but I have my friends, my higher power, and my future.

In my opinion, my friends are one of the most precious gifts I have received in MA. During the end of my using, I had no friends, like many of us marijuana addicts.  Today, I have more friends than I have ever had. What’s more, they are REAL friends. They love me unconditionally, and  I love them.  I have learned the true meaning of friendship in MA.

My Higher Power is my greatest gift from the program. I am not a religious person, but I believe I have become a spiritual person. My Higher Power guides and supports me in a way I have never known before. I think I am in conscious contact with God, at most times, and for that I am very grateful.

The most exciting thing I have gotten from my time in MA is my future. Before I got sober, I did not really have any goals for my future. As long as I could get high, I didn’t care what else I did. Now that has all changed. In September, I will be starting my third semester in college, and I am deciding what my major will be. The wonderful thing is that now I can do anything. Now that I am sober, I have confidence in myself. My future is not set in stone, but I know that if I am sober, whatever my Higher Power and I decide will be wonderful.

Published in A New Leaf – September 1991

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