A Rebirth in AA

In AA when someone celebrates a sober anniversary, fellow alcoholics will wish them a “Happy Birthday.” For me this has a double meaning, as my sober anniversary is the same day as my real birthday. I got sober on my twenty-second birthday, although certainly not intentionally. I came to on the day before my birthday, drank as much cheap tequila as I could keep down, and then went to a 7 a.m. AA meeting. For the past few months, I had thought I was fooling the people around me, pretending to be sober, and going to AA meetings drunk. I might have fooled my employer by barely eking by at the coffee shop I worked at, and my parents, who were doing the best they could to help me get sober by driving me to meetings. But there was no fooling my fellow alcoholics in the meetings. Thank goodness for the Third Tradition which only requires a desire to stop drinking for membership. My fellow alcoholics allowed me to show up at meetings drunk, offered love and support through fellowship, but the ultimate thing they did for me that day, was to tell me after the meeting that they knew I was drinking and that they did not want me to die.