Children of Alcoholics Are Drinking Before They Can Read – Vanessa W.

This reading is based on a passage from page 29 of the Big Book of Alcoholics and Namists. By the way, I'm not an alcoholic. Sorry about that. At any rate, each individual in our personal stories describes in their own language and from their own point of view the way they establish their relationship with God. These give a fair cross-section of our membership and clear-cut idea of what has happened in their lives. We hope no one will consider these self-revealing accounts in bad taste. Our hope is that many alcoholic men and women in our room tonight and listening later on, aabloochipspeakers.org, desperately in need, will hear our speaker. And we believe that it is only by fully disclosing ourselves and our problems that any of us shall be persuaded to say, Yes, I am one of them too. I must have this thing. And tonight's speaker actually happens to be my sponsor. She is absolutely amazing. I called her looking for a sponsor, and she was already full with sponsees and took me on anyway. And so I am going to hang on to her until I have all of the gratitude and faith and patience and tolerance that she has. And so tonight I welcome and introduce you to Vanessa. Vanessa. Hello, family. My name is Vanessa, and I am a grateful, grateful recovering alcoholic. Hey, family. I always like to thank God for allowing me to find a program that led me to the rooms of Alcoholic Anonymous. I thank our predecessors who have died and gone on and left this legacy alive. I thank you, old-timers, who keep coming back and forth in these rooms and letting me know this program, it really do works. I'd like to welcome... I'd like to welcome any newcomer, because you are the most important person at any meeting, because we can only keep what we have by giving it away. You know, I don't know how to stand behind a podium. So I'm going to be a little loud so the tape can catch me, because I don't know how to stand behind a podium. I'm not a podium speaker. Do I? Oh, you look at me all the time. Anyway. I was about to stand behind you. My story goes a little like this. Like, because I came into Alcoholic Anonymous thinking that I wasn't an alcoholic, right? But, like, during the work, I remember when I was a little girl. See, I come from a family of bootleggers. I come from a family of bootleggers. Everybody had a bootlegger house. I hung out at the bootlegger house with my parents, right? And all I knew how to do was go around and pick up the cups, right? In the name of cleaning up, I would pick up all the cups. Right? And get drunk. And they would say, dance, baby! And I would dance, and they would give me money to dance. And I thought I was in heaven. So that's what I used to do. I used to clean up at the bootlegger. And I would say that I wasn't an alcoholic, and I made money. I was fine for a long time. And you drank, I'm a dad, some alcohol. Because you would have seizures. And I would stand over him. I would stand over him with an arm. With other things in my hand, saying, oh, he needs some help. Not knowing that I needed help, too. Right? Everybody needed help but the nuts. Everybody. My mom would drunk and beat us. She would drunk and beat us. And they would wake up the next day like nothing happened. A Bruce came out. You were just getting your butt whooped. Now you whoop your own children. They call it a Bruce. You'd be in jail for whooping your own children. Anyway, my story goes on from alcohol to other things. Right? And what was my experience? I didn't know how to cope with my thoughts. To go to school. I put my list in. I started off, because like I just told y'all from the beginning, my family had always been a hustler. I had always been in a hustling family. My parents had a fish market. We ran the numbers out the fish market. I was a little girl. Running from school to school. Go, go, go. Dropping off fish and numbers. Right? I'm done. When I went to school, and I would sell now and laters and Jolly Ranchers on the stick. The stick Jolly Ranchers. I sold candies. Blow pot. Blow pot. Been like it is now. Hair sold. This year. It's life. I get timid so get timid. Right? Once in a while, I took you two places. I'd be bailing off every time I keep coming. And I understand today why they say keep coming. Every time I keep coming back, I get clear. That's why I keep attention. That's why I keep attention. That's why I keep attention. That's why I keep attention. That's why I keep attention. That's why I keep attention. And when I'm on my way to meetings, make the make it. As I get into her story, Amy's chair and she goes into a seizure. We're calling an ambulance. And Vanessa's like, oh my god, we got a real recording tonight. We won a blue record. Vanessa, you did awesome. Thank you. Thank you one and all for joining the Blitzchamp Speaker Meeting tonight. If the river keep on rising, water's gonna overflow. If that river keep on rising, water's gonna overflow. If that river keep on rising, water's gonna overflow. Water gonna overflow.