Sober 13 years since December 2002, George grew up in Columbia, SC, the youngest of two kids from a great family: both parents educators, tight-knit family, met every Sunday at Grandma's.
George was a good student up to his junior year when he had his first drink.
"It was a definitive shift in my behavior from that exact moment."
His grades were still good enough, though he had lost interest in academics, and the family expected him to go to college, so he chose a small college in Knoxville that gave him a full scholarship so he would not be dependent on his parents.
He did not last long there. For the next eight years he wandered, out of control on many levels.
In his mid-twenties, working as a pasteurizer on the midnight shift at a dairy, he made a decision to go back and get his degree.
"When we make up our minds, nobody can stop us."
Even though he was doing many more things than just drinking, "when I went to school I cut all that out.".
He got a degree in Computer Science in three years. He got a job working in D.C. for the Census Bureau until a year later when his background check came in. They were willing to keep him on but George quit because he had been victimized - caught for something he did before employment that he failed to tell them about.
"I do not know if ya'll get that now but that is insane thinking."
He got involved in some bad activity in D.C. involving guns and bad characters.
He came back home and started working. Never a lazy person, he could always get a job but he could never keep them. He lived at home with his parents. George got a great job offer in St. Louis but his dad told him don't go.
St. Louis started OK but it was not long before he was involved with some bad people. The company suggested he go to a two week treatment program that introduced him to AA. He lost the job anyway.
He came back home to go to treatment but was extradited back to St. Louis to face charges. He went to New Jersey for nine months of treatment.
Back home, he stayed sober for five years but his business partners were drinkers. Eventually he succumbed to a combination of a woman and booze - slamming drinks from the first, he passed out and did not get the woman.
Back home he tried to hide his slip from AA but started a long series of slips.
He wound up homeless in Atlanta eating out of garbage cans. "That was my bottom."
He came back in with a willingness he never had before.
He has been sober ever since.
George was introduced by Michael H. of Dacula, GA who was spoke the week before at the same group"
(42 min) (9.7 MB) (id#1475)