Michael is known for his positive energy and willingness to help others throughout The 24 and the community. He successfully graduated from Dallas 24 Hour Club in March of 2023.
How did you get started with Drugs and Alcohol? When I was around the age of 13, I started hanging around with the older crowd in Boston. I grew up with a single mom and my grandmother; I had a lot of feelings of insecurity and searching for a male figure in my life. Alcohol kind of numbed out that searching. It really progressed through my early 20s, and I never really wanted to stop until it ran me into the ground.
How did you end up at Dallas 24 Hour Club? I had several bouts of sobriety. I had 4 years of sobriety at one point, and then I relapsed. After that, I really struggled to put anytime together. I watched myself work the steps backward. I stopped helping others, stopped praying and meditating, and then I was just going through the motions. I took a good job in Dallas, and on my way here, I relapsed. I didn’t pick up the phone or ask for help or have any kind of connection. I had a reservation in my head and relapsed long before I took a drink. On the drive, a gentleman ran a red light and hit me while I was under the influence. It was my third DUI; Texas didn’t care that the others were from years ago in another state. I was supposed to stay available to show up for court in 3 days, but I almost drank myself to death in a hotel for a month instead. I even had plans to live in a sober living house when I got to Dallas, and I never showed. The owner of the house called his friend. His friend Kyle came and picked me up from the hotel, he didn’t know me, but he knew the program. He took me to the hospital to detox and then brought me straight to The 24. It was a spiritual intervention that he showed up. The 24 was nothing like the cushy rehab I had gone to in 2009. It was an eye-opening experience because I had lost everything. It was okay though, because, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t running the show. I did what The 24 suggested this time, and it gave me peace. It was all in a plan for me.
What does Recovery mean to you? Recovery means several things to me today. It’s taking the good with the bad and accepting everything in between, and knowing that sometime the worst things only happen in your head. It means it's okay not to be ok and to ask for help. I have to be giving it back to keep it. Every time I have faltered, it is because I stopped giving away all that was freely given to me.
What is your greatest achievement? I would say making amends with my mom and grandmother before they passed. I was able to take care of my grandmother for the last 3 years of her life while I had a period of sobriety.
What is your greatest blessing? It has been getting back in touch with my higher power, with the help of my friend Kyle, The 24, and this program.
If it weren’t for Dallas 24 Hour Club, I would probably be in jail, dead, or just out on the streets, but I know I would be 100% spiritually broken.
What is one thing you want people to know? Sometimes you have to fall and go low to be able to get back up on your feet. I am happy today, and it took all of that to get me here. It took a long time for me to be happy.