Saving Me!
By Melissa
Hello! I have been wanting to share my story with other people so I finally found a place in which I thought it would be greatly appreciated perhaps. Anyway, I started drinking alcohol when I was 15 years old. I am from Mexico so back home its legal to do so at the age of 18, it was not anything that I did not have under control back then though. I was living with my parents so I really did not have many chances of going out and getting drunk. I moved to the United States when I was 17, I came here to study. At the age of 20 was when I started drinking very heavily…I lost my dad almost three years ago (I am 22 now, almost 23), and coping with it has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
The following semester of him passing away, I started going out more, getting wasted to the point where I would black out. I quit caring about school and did very badly on my grades as expected..I started drinking almost everyday, it became a routine for me. I did not wake up wanting a drink but everyday after school I was already thinking “I wonder what specials they have tonight at the bar.” I started having problems at my work because there would be days in which I was so hangover that I would call-in or simply just not go. I can literally say that I was spending about $150 weekly on alcohol. I had a lot of people tell me “you should start watching how much you drink”, but honestly I did not care about it.
If I had a bad day (which was very often) I would use it as an excuse to drink in order to forget about my problems. Then, I started getting in trouble with the law, I had never in my life been to jail whatsoever, but one night I had been drinking and decided to drive which lead me to running into an 18-wheeler. Thankfully, nothing happened to me (I know my dad was looking out for me), but I got a DWI! I know, this should have been my wake up call because I could have killed myself or even worse, somebody else. But instead, the following day I was at the bar taking some shots with my “friends”. I was a complete mess, and going to a very very bad path.
The next time I got in trouble with the law was when I charged with public intoxication. I was found outside a bar, almost getting abducted by 10 men. I do not have any recollection of this even whatsoever because I was very intoxicated. Still to this date, it hurts my heart only thinking about it. I know what happened because I read it in the newspaper, but although I was taken to jail, I am so glad they decided to do so otherwise who knows if I would be here sharing my story…I finally woke up one day and said to myself ENOUGH!! It’s time to get your life together, and even though it was hard at first I finally did it!!
This following September 25th will be my fourth month of being completely sober and I have never felt more alive. Not only I am doing this for myself but also for my family because they know that person I was four months ago was not me. I am going back to being the woman I was before alcohol poisoned my life. I am becoming the woman my dad always knew I would be!! I am sharing this story because I would like everybody to know that you do not need to drink in order to have fun.
Now that I am sober, I go out to play pool, dance, etc. and even though I have only water, I have a great time, even a better one than when I was drinking. I do not miss alcohol at all, and I know for fact that I will never drink again, not because I think I will relapse but because I do not need it in my life. It only brought negativity to it. Think about all the bad times that you have had…do most of them involve alcohol? Alcohol is my number one enemy and even though it tried to destroy me, my battle with it is done, and I can gladly say that I WON!!!!