Mike's Story

In my second year of high school, I was expelled for selling oxycodone to my football coach.

I should have taken that as a wake-up call and realized my life wasn't going down the right track but that was just the beginning. I had almost fourteen more years of causing pain and misery for myself and others before I gained enough of a desire to change.

A few years ago, I was homeless and living on the streets of Vancouver, using every day. My day-to-day revolved around which dealer I needed to see, or which store I could steal from to feed my next fix. Life was a series of stints in jail. But I was getting tired of being tired. Even though I had overdosed many times before, I was afraid to end it myself. There had always been someone there to save me.

My mom was the one who offered me a ticket home, on the condition that I go to treatment. At that time, I felt like I had nothing going for me and nothing to lose, so I agreed.

The first time I was at Simon House, I relapsed a week away from graduation. I had lied about the work that I was doing, pretending to pray and have a higher power while continuing to be dishonest. I held this delusion that once I finished treatment, I'd be fixed and could go back to my old way of living. Insanity. I had to learn the hard way that in treatment, I'm learning to be a new person— the person God intended me to be.

The second time I came to Simon House, I realized that things weren't getting better and many of the people I knew were overdosing and not coming back. I decided that this time, I would be honest with my counsellors and with myself. I started praying, I found a sponsor, I read the big book and did the things that I had always said that I was doing, but never was.

Since then, I've graduated from Simon House. I go to meetings, I spend time with family, and I meet with my sponsor. Before I knew it, I'd made it through a whole year of being sober and out of jail. Things aren't just good anymore, they're great! Things I never thought I'd be able to do sober, I'm doing.

I have sober friends, something I haven't had since middle school. I have a job that relies on me, and I've held chair positions as part of the Simon House Alumni (and continue to do so). I'm a sponsor to clients in Simon House who are working on getting sober and will soon be sponsors to someone else. I get to walk the street of this city with new hope and the ability to help others. I'm so grateful to be sober and I owe that to Simon House — to the staff, the volunteers, and the clients— because of them I'm just shy of two years sober with so much hope for the future.

Today, my life is more amazing than I could ever have thought possible.

— Mike