GRADUATION SPEECH

Before coming to New Hope, I had made a mess out of my life. I was drowning emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I was searching for something and I did not know what. I searched in all of the wrong places and I say wrong because nothing was filling the void that I had and everything had a big price tag attached.

I had a loving family that was always there no matter what, but for some reason that was not enough either. I became someone that even my family could not understand. I became involved with drugs. I separated myself from those who really loved and cared for me. I became vengeful, manipulative, and dishonest just to name a few.

Everyone knew something was wrong except me until I began realizing that to continue in this manner would be the death of me. I became tired of the lying and all of the destruction that was going on inside and outside of me. I was drowning in a lonely sea of despair.

I came to New Hope to find myself and to fill the void. I found out about New Hope through a crisis center that I had entered seeking for help. They had New Hope's brochure. I read it and said that this program would be easy and I could get though this with no problem.

Little did I know that recovery entailed much more. It entailed a lot of work. I had to begin to look at myself, my faults, mistakes; and my wrong doings as well as why I picked up in the first place.

When I arrived and met my counselor, Sr. Maureen, I said she could not possibly know what I have been through or what I am going through. Little did I know I had truly met my match. I was not able to go to her with anything that she had not already heard or seen. She was tough but caring and loving.

There were times when we were at each others throat and times when I just would not listen, like with my mother, but she would not give up and neither did my family. They had faith in me.

Sr. Maureen found the key in helping me find myself and the key through making through my recovery, that key is God. She helped me to redevelop my relationship with him and to develop my spirituality. She has helped me see my good qualities as well as admitting to my bad qualities. She has helped me to build relationships with my children and my family and helped me to redevelop my creativity, just to name a few.

There is so much that I have learned, relearned, and achieved about myself, life, and about happiness. With the loving support of my children, family, and Sr. Maureen, I am a happy and a content person today. I am grateful to them and for staff for the love and support.

Today, I am a secretary in a Neurosurgeons office and doing well, I have my own place that I can invite my family to, I have my children, I am getting involved with the church community.

Today I see life as worth living and not as a burden. I see problems and difficulties as stepping stones, tools to better my life, and not as being the worse thing that could happen to me.

I want to thank my family, Sr. Maureen, my peers, staff, and all others for standing behind me. I especially want to thank God for giving me a second chance at life. I know he will always be there for me, if I continue to believe, keep the faith, and give myself the chance.