“We now have tools to help us grow. Our goals become attainable. We find ourselves in possession of new degrees of honesty, tolerance, patience, unselfishness, serenity, and love. Experience has shown us that we can all learn to live by spiritual principles.”

– Life with Hope, second edition, page 63

Many people in the program have said it felt like everyone else had a manual on how to live life except for us. As an 18-year-old young man, I was confused, depressed, and unsuccessful at dealing with life on life’s terms. Looking back, it’s not surprising I started looking for ways to escape from my feelings. It only took a few months before I started to feel dependent on smoking weed, but it would take me years to admit that I had a problem. I was missing structure in my life, tangible goals, and people to whom I could be accountable and with whom I could be honest.

These are all things I have found in MA, and the program has given me a toolkit and a better way to live my life. The friends I’ve made have been on a deeper, more honest level and are working towards major goals in their lives, which motivates me. I’m trying to stay clean from marijuana, but I’m also chasing my dream job, a healthier lifestyle, and working to process old trauma. I can do this because the program is the structure I need, and the support that I was looking for but couldn’t find anywhere else.

I’ve witnessed profound changes in other people and in myself, as I’ve made large strides towards my goals and engaged in the hard work required to grow. Every act of service that I’ve done has also been exactly the same help I needed, and so by helping others, I help myself.

Final thought: Today, doing service is an act that gives my life more purpose and meaning, and it’s a way I can give back to the same pool of wisdom and serenity that I drew heavily from during my desperate early days of recovery.