1st meeting

So I went to my first meeting tonight.

My friend came with me (I him for being so nice).

We were a few minutes late, but we settled in... demographically speaking, I'm the youngest person there. Definitely.

It was an 'open' meeting, with lots of people. It was interesting, listening to one persons story, and getting to clap for people who were celebrating their "birthdays".

Kinda interesting... at the end, I said hello to someone else there that I knew. It was kinda interesting, and he gave me one of those white chips afterwards, but expects me to eventually get one in front of everyone.

Bought a copy of the "Big Book". I've read one chapter, but it looks like this is going to be a LONG read.

Only a few people said hello to me (thankfully), but one woman and I had a nice chat. She gave me her number and we found out we live really close to each other. She seems really nice.

So I'm pledging to at least go once more next Monday night, okay? It was interesting, so I at least need to see how I feel the next time around.

Wow... also, lots of laughter. Smiling. A few people hugging, but not that many (phew!)

Thanks everyone for their advice, support & suggestions.

Yeah!!!! You did it!

Hi Christina,

Glad that you survived your first meeting. It sounds like it went ok, and I'm glad that you're giving it a second shot.

Don't be too put off by the Big Book - sometimes the language is a little dated, but there's lots of good stuff in there. Only the first 164 pages basically make up the "program" the rest are individual's stories about how they got sober. They're the sort of thing you can read one at a time in about 10 minutes. I personally like them because I find them inspirational.

If you do decide that AA is for you, at this time, then I highly recommend Stephanie Covington's book and workbook, A Woman's Way through the 12 steps. It stays true to the original 12 steps but has excercises in it that are kind of from a feminine perspective with lots of good suggestions for self soothing. It's really helped me loads.

Take care.

--splitimage

Beginnings can be so very wonderful....

Lenny

((((((((((((((((((((((((( Christina86 ))))))))))))))))))))))

Yay! You did it!!!!!

I'm glad you're going to a second meeting. Can I suggest you also try one on another night if you are able to? All of the meetings are different, and the one I ended up settling into as my home group was not the first one I went to.

Keep us posted on your journey

I would do that, but geographically speaking, this one is by far the easiest to get to. I'm totally serious too. I'll look into other ones though... providing I've got free time outside of classtime, especially when September hits and school resumes full-force.