Alumni of the Month Wade E

Feb 28th, 2008 my dad dropped me off at the Last Door, unknown to me, my airline ticket from Calgary was one way, and I was also unaware of the incredible journey I was about to experience.  My life was about to change forever.

This is true of my story as it is for so many of my friends, that I had lost everything I owned.  Looking back today, more importantly I had lost my heart.  As I sat in the office at the Door, I was asked if I could remember the last time I was happy or had fun.  I stared at the floor and flipped through some snapshots in my mind.  I soon realized it had been years since I was actually present and a participant in a meaningful life.

I had just lived the better part of twenty years as if it were a dream, more accurately a nightmare that I was unable to wake up from.  I was told not to leave before the miracle happens.  The staff and clients shared their experience with me.  I surrendered, I listened, and I learned to live my life without the use of drugs.

The miracle of recovery , is not only the amazing freedom I en joy everyday from the obsession and compulsion to use drugs, it is also the ability to live in the moment, and experience feelings of joy and love that were so foreign to me for so many years.

Through practicing the spiritual principles that I was taught, I now celebrate recovery instead of suffer in addiction.  I recently realized a dream by volunteering at the Olympic Games.  On Feb 28, 2010, two years to the day that I was asked if I could remember being happy, or had fun, I was watching the Gold Medal game between USA and Canada at Canada Hockey Place.

Most of the time my life is pretty good, and sometimes my life is great, greater than I could have ever hoped for.  I have learned to like myself and found friendship.  I came to know myself a little bit and found understanding.  I found faith, and from it freedom.  The Last Door saved my life, and I am forever in debt.

Clean Date February 26 2008