Atlanta, GA

"I joined the military to get out of Omaha. I served in the Air Force for three years. I got my career, gained my trade that way. It was post Vietnam when I joined. And so, it was not a good time to be a soldier. Let alone a black one who was in the wrong uniform. I was a data processing specialist, and I was the first black person in that unit. And it was…interesting. I was a party animal too! So I was living a double life. I was in the MIlitary, but I would be in San Francisco three four nights a week dancing, partying with the ladies... I got clean and sober in 1983 so it’s been a little over 34 years of sobriety. I turned into the biggest self-help junkie all of my friends knew. The West Coast is just like that, it’s very progressive, there’s just lots of things to get into that I haven’t seen in other parts of the country. I got into Anthony Roberts, I took some integrative therapy process, I learned meditation, I studied Emmet Fox with a man who studied with Emmet Fox himself. And then I got off into a company called Landmark Education Corporation and became a public speaker for them.

I’ve been through a lot while sober. I’ve lost my career and all my money, my mother, and figured out who I truly was. I still think back to when I first got clean and sober - I was depressed for awhile because, who was I gonna be without being anesthetized? And my best friend, named Patricia, taught me how to have fun being clean and sober. Sobriety taught me that I’ll get through it no matter what. All of me came out, my personality just blossomed! The more time I got, the greater it has been."