Hello everyone 
My name is Garrett—I am a 29 year old male getting ready to celebrate his big 30th this November, and I’ve never been more ready to start his sober journey.
I am so incredibly excited to be spending this journey with every single one of you.
Alcohol started for me in college—a time where I was so ready to enjoy time away from home and start living life as my own person. I was a Division I athlete playing and loving the beautiful sport that is tennis, traveling to all ends of the country meeting some very special people that are still in my life today.
Getting to that destination however, took an incredible amount of sacrifice, and that is why it is so special for me to listen and read about all of yours.
Sacrifice as we know, takes a lot from us. Sometimes it takes every thing. It also takes things from us that we did not even know we had at the time we decided to pursue this exciting, motivating endeavor. Whether it was a major life change, a personal goal, or for our own health, sacrifice costs us a pretty penny, and it’s not just the physical ones.
For me, becoming a great athlete required immense discipline, training, criticism, energy, changes in lifestyle, money, and the most important factor that I never I took care of, my mental state.
I began my tennis journey at a young age, and to paint a picture, the best players in the history of the sport during their careers won around 48-52% of the points they played. It’s also a game where you can win more points in a match than your opponent and still lose entirely. This engrained the dreaded P-word in my young developing brain, and that word was perfectionism. We trained to be perfect because of how absolutely devastating the game could be for us at certain times. Months and years of training to find ourselves getting knocked down again and again and again. It was hard to keep going, but when the finish line was crossed, it was incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. I will always smile looking back at that journey.
In the real world, and more importantly as human beings, being perfect does not exist. It is simply chasing the impossible.
This is why I believe I am here at this point in my life.
I was never able to let go of the endless pursuit, and I struggle heavily at times with self-appreciation due to that dreaded P-word being embedded in the deep recesses of my brain.
Alcohol helped with that. The confidence it gave me, and probably many of you, felt oh so good. It quickly became a slippery slope however.
Today at 29, I’m finally now understanding the power alcohol gains over time, and I want to completely let it go. It’s time for a change.
We got this!
- Garrett
Glad u found us and I hope that this forum is as helpful for u as it has been for me.