Randy's Blog

Sobriety

Well here it is April 15, 2010 and I just celebrated my fifteenth year of sobriety. It doesn't seem like it has been that long but I guess time really does go by that fast. I can still remember that day when I was driving home from the bar and the police pulled me over, I was thinking to myself here we go again, this was like my fourth or fifth DWI and I just knew I was going to jail for good this time. I got pulled over right in front of the house where I was living at with my dad and as they put me in the back of the car I could see my dad standing out there on the sidewalk looking at me with regret in his eyes that I was getting arrested again and on my way back to jail for like the sixth time. I am not sure what was really going through my head at the time as I was pretty pumped up on drugs and a lot of alcohol. I remember when I finally got to jail and I called my dad to tell him that he couldn't bail me out this time, that I had really gotten myself into a situation this time. I was going to have to go to jail again. I was really living it up back then partying a lot and doing nothing with my life. God must have been there looking after me though because when I went to court to see the judge, that said he never wanted to see me in his court room again, he only gave me one year in county jail when as the district attorney fought to send me away for three to five in state prison. The judge must have been in a good mood that day as he told me he was going to give me one more chance and that i had better watch my step. I was so grateful, I am not sure how my life would have turned out if I were to have to go to prison for five years. While I was serving my time I checked myself into this stepping out program that the jail was providing and they really helped me to realize the problems i was having in my life. After talking with some of the counselors there they helped me realize that if I were to have a chance at life that I was going to have to change a few things in my life. So I talked with my dad and told him that I really needed to leave California. So he talked with my mom, who lives here in Missouri, and they got together and bought me a plane ticket so that I could stay with her and try to make a better life for myself. I am so grateful for my parents, although I had to leave my dad who was sick, I knew if I did not get out of that I would just refer back to the only life I knew. I still here from some of the people that I used to know out there and I know deep down that I my life would have never changed living the only way I knew how out there. Thanks mom, dad and the lord above for this second chance at life.