Posted on October 15, 2024 View all news
Written on 1/20/2024
My Life: Three years in recovery. Wow. I must say that life is much better than I expected. I did expect it to get better as time went on, but I’m in a totally unexpected spot regarding how I expected my life to change.
I resisted college for the longest time. I was an entrepreneur dreamer for a long time. I wanted to start my own business and make a lot of cash while being under 20 years old. It’s funny to think about it now.
Everything seemed like such a rush when I was a teenager. I had to start my own business. I had to move out of my parent’s house immediately. I had to get a car. I had to make a ton of money as quickly as possible. It all seemed so urgent at the time.
Today, I have the gift of patience—a gift I call it because it’s just that. Sometimes, we have to wait for things in life. The good things take some time—not necessarily a lot of time—but the urgency is just an illusion.
I thought I’d be happy if I got the money, the house, and the independence. I thought I’d be happy after I got all my ducks in a row. God took me on a different path. He said you’ll be happy with nothing first, and then you can try to acquire those material things you want. And that’s exactly what I did.
I went into recovery with little to no money. I was living around at other people’s houses, people I met on the spot. I often wore other people’s clothes, which they let me borrow. I ate the food provided to me. I rode around in other people’s cars. But I learned to be happy with little or nothing of my own. I learned that it’s not the materials in my possession that make me happy. It’s the joy of life—the experiencing of life in new and different ways that bring happiness.
Everyone grows up in a kind of bubble. Most kids live with their parents and go to school. Then, they go off to college and leave the bubble. And college is also a bubble. But I was thrown into a world where I experienced different walks of life and cultures. As a teen, I lived with a Brazilian family for some time. Now, Brazilian bread is one of my favorite foods.
I learned a lot just by getting out of the bubble. And that is what I call life. Experiencing new things outside of your normal routine. These experiences definitely helped me develop happiness within myself. Today, I am at college and having a totally new experience. But I have a lot under my belt. Life experience. Something more important than money.
K.
