Personal Reflection On AA Meetings
Reflection #1
As we go through life we encounter many life changing experiences. Some shape us to be the individuals we are today, while others will have you feeling like your stuck at a stand still. On January 20, 2016 I had the pleasure of meeting an extraordinary young woman who is currently managing to defy the odds as a single mother in this society. Ericka Lewis is a twenty-year-old college student who has a beautiful two-year-old daughter. The father of Ericka’s child abandoned the two when she was just four months old. Since then she has found herself fighting the storm before the calm. In Ericka’s culture it is often frowned upon to have a child out of wedlock due to religious beliefs. Not only did she have a child but she was also …show more content…
You see I have always had this inaccurate perception that the only people who attended AA meetings are misguided individuals who have some how lost their way due to alcoholism. Within the first 10 minutes of my arrival I was honestly embarrassed to have ever felt this way. Every single individual in the room gathered together with the common focus of getting their life back in order. Given the upmost respect to the members of the AA meeting I attended, they all have something I have yet to find, the courage to share their life stories from how they were introduced to such an addiction, to how the are the business men and women that they are today. As they poured their souls out everyone was attentive, for some the stories that they shared were similar, and for others bad decision making as an adolescent. Members discussed the great damage alcoholism has contributed to their lives – damage which they would have liked to have avoided. In addition to this, members voiced a strong desire to quit drinking but were unable to maintain sobriety at various points in their
As we go through life we encounter many life changing experiences. Some shape us to be the individuals we are today, while others will have you feeling like your stuck at a stand still. On January 20, 2016 I had the pleasure of meeting an extraordinary young woman who is currently managing to defy the odds as a single mother in this society. Ericka Lewis is a twenty-year-old college student who has a beautiful two-year-old daughter. The father of Ericka’s child abandoned the two when she was just four months old. Since then she has found herself fighting the storm before the calm. In Ericka’s culture it is often frowned upon to have a child out of wedlock due to religious beliefs. Not only did she have a child but she was also …show more content…
You see I have always had this inaccurate perception that the only people who attended AA meetings are misguided individuals who have some how lost their way due to alcoholism. Within the first 10 minutes of my arrival I was honestly embarrassed to have ever felt this way. Every single individual in the room gathered together with the common focus of getting their life back in order. Given the upmost respect to the members of the AA meeting I attended, they all have something I have yet to find, the courage to share their life stories from how they were introduced to such an addiction, to how the are the business men and women that they are today. As they poured their souls out everyone was attentive, for some the stories that they shared were similar, and for others bad decision making as an adolescent. Members discussed the great damage alcoholism has contributed to their lives – damage which they would have liked to have avoided. In addition to this, members voiced a strong desire to quit drinking but were unable to maintain sobriety at various points in their