Well, I just got back last night from being in Europe for 3 weeks. What a trip it was! I stayed at a youth center in Wales for 2 weeks doing some service work for the local forestry service (clearing footpaths, building small bridges). Of the 14 people I stayed with, I was the only one that spoke fluent English so it was so very interesting! It is so apparent to me now how isolated I have been from the rest of the world in Midwest USA. Noone had even HEARD of peanut butter and jelly, and they had no intention of trying it either! lol. Anyways, this post isn't about the trip itself...
There were opportunities to drink AND drug- I spent some time with a guy that used to be in a Welsh biker gang, but now is just a local tattoo artist- he plays piano and since I play guitar we had a couple of jam sessions. One of those occurred at his house and his friend rolled up huge joints one after the other- i passed, which in retrospect seems quite strange! There were a couple of nights when some of the other volunteers opted to wander down to the local pub and of course I did not go, offering some hazy excuse which noone quite understood lol. I have to admit on those evenings it was kind of hard. I felt like the hermit staying behind and not able to live like they were...but, i just kept telling myself-"Hey, you ARE NOT like them and its just not worth it". Luckily there was a guy from Morrocco there that didn't drink on account of his being Muslim, so I wasn't the only one not going out.
I saw my 90th day sober in Wales on top of a mountain (Ill show you pictures sometime). I called my sponsor from the summit and got a voicemail (go figure!!) I went to an AA meeting in Paris on my 100th day. That was pretty damn cool I have to admit.
The last week I spent in Paris was pretty amazing..almost out of body experience. There were times during that part of the trip where I thought-"My God, I'm in Paris and there are such women here, and here I am retiring for the evening in my hotel at 10pm...what a waste!!!" But again, I had to fast forward through the first drink and saw myself getting arrested or getting into a fight, or etc...
Im back home in Indiana and have to admit I have a "hangover" of sorts- back in the doldrums of my boring life. The "big trip" is over now and what's on the horizon seems so very less exciting and romantic- doing laundry, looking for a little job, dealing with sobriety in a less stimulating environment. Its like I was getting sober, at least in part, for this trip and now that its over....? For some reason, I do not look forward to going back to my local meetings...i dont know why! I guess my desperation is not there...what I wouldn't do for some good ole desperation! Well, I'm rambling here...Hope everyone has been doing well and its good to be back (sort of) :)
Dodsworth, what a great sober experience!!!!! Just think of how F'ed up it could've been if you'd had pulled a binge on that trip. More likely you wouldn't or couldn't have gone if you weren't sober. What a payoff so early in sobriety! That's some great E,S,&H that you have to share with the people in your group and thanks for sharing it here.
Careful. I too had a romance with an out of town adventure early in sobriety and although I made it through and was quite proud of myself I allowed my 'doldrum' life back home get to me and I relapsed some weeks later.
So, watch for that. Stay close to your sponsor and get to those meetings.
Congrats on 90 days. Woo Hoo!
(((hugs)))
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Congrats Dods on the 3 months and thensome! I missed you on here and was wondering where you went. I guess I missed the "I'm going to europe thread" that you might have posted. Welcome back. There is some strong experience to take from that trip it sounds like. You climbed a mountain while simulataneously climbing your own personal mountain of sobriety. Traveling rules. I've did a lot of it before age 25 or so when I started falling deeper into alcoholism. When I reflect on it, I think of this cheesy, but somehow meaningful song that was in the beginning of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. "I've been to Nice and the ilses of Greece. I sipped Champagne on a Yacht. I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me." Going to me is a hard trip but the most rewarding one in the end. You will get out of what your meetings and program what you put into it. You are still on a journey and this one is actually going to be even greater and more wonderful than you imagined if you stay in the moment, work your program, and let it all unfold a day at a time. (now that I wrote that, I gotta believe that for myself lol).
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