Young People and A.A.

My drinking got me kicked out of school; it got me into trouble with the law; I was put on probation; I was court ordered to counseling and I was fighting constantly with my parents. I hated what I was doing to them and I loathed what I was doing to myself, but I didn’t know how to stop. I finally got honest with my probation officer one day and she suggested I go to a Young Peoples A.A. meeting.

After the meeting they invited me out for coffee. I said I didn’t have enough money for coffee and they said it was OK. After coffee they gave me their telephone numbers and told me if I needed to talk, if I wanted to drink, if I needed a ride to a meeting, I could call them 24/7 and they would be there. That was my first introduction to A.A.

I went to meetings for two more weeks, but then I relapsed. There was a fatal flaw in my program. I was on the 1-1-1 plan. I was going to go to one meeting, once a week, for one hour.

I came back to the Young Peoples meeting and told them I slipped. They said what was most important was that I was there and to keep coming back until the miracle happened. Again, no one shamed me or blamed me – they just loved and accepted me into sobriety.

Unfortunately, I discovered I had another fatal flaw in my A.A. program – I wasn’t willing to give-up the faces and the places. I thought I could hang-out with my old friends, go to the old parties and not drink. That lasted for two-weeks and then I slipped again. I thought I had hit bottom, but then I found out that bottom has a basement.

In this new bottom I finally took the First Step. I fell to my knees with tears streaming down my face, I looked to the heavens and said, “God please help me, because I can’t do this anymore”. And like a fever breaking I felt the obsession and craving for alcohol dissipate and I haven’t had a drink since.

This time I went back into the rooms of A.A. with renewed vigor. I was willing to follow directions. I put aside my half measures. Members in my home-group suggested I get a sponsor and so I did. I asked my sponsor how many meetings I should go to a week and he replied, “How many days a week did you party?”

I told him every day and he said, “Well, there’s your answer”. So, for my first 365 days of sobriety I went to 365 meetings.

I got involved with service-work by signing up for meetings. I volunteered to make coffee; to be a meeter-greeter; and to go on 12th Step calls. I got in the middle of A.A. because my sponsor told me it was the safest place to be. He said if you’re on the merry-go-round and you don’t want to fall off – get in the middle.

My sponsor encouraged me to start going to conferences and roundups. I attended the International Conference of Young People in A.A. (ICYPA.A.) when it came to our state. I even started another Young Peoples meeting in our area.

What my sponsor knew and I understand now was the importance of action and more action. It is so important to be involved with other young people in A.A. and to give back to others.

Today I am still involved with A.A. I sponsor other young men coming into the program; I take meetings into treatment centers, and I give back that which was given so freely to me. But perhaps best of all I remember what it was like coming into my first A.A. meeting as a young person. How different I thought I was from everyone else because I was so young. I remember how frightened I was and how accepting and non-judgmental the other A.A. members were of me. I remember how they loved and accepted me into sobriety and I try to practice their example today in all my affairs.