You Have a New Boss Now — Let the Truck, the Money, and the Marriage Go – Sohel E.

Are y'all ready to have a meetin'? Let's have an AA meetin'. My name is Melissa, and I am an alcoholic. Welcome to the Monday 8 p.m. Blue Chip Speakers Meeting at the NAVA Club, where a member of Alcoholics Anonymous with one year or more of sobriety tells his or her story. This reading is based on a passage from page 29 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Each individual in our own personal story describes in their own language and from their own point of view the way that they establish their relationship with God. These give a fair cross-section of our membership in a 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 on aabloochipspeakers.org will hear our speaker, and we believe that is the right thing to do. 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 so tonight, Ken will be introducing our speaker. Morning, everybody. I'm an alcoholic. I'm Ken Horvath. Hey, Ken. I had the honor of getting together with Sohal 38 years ago. We drank together, partied together, and got in trouble together. In 91, he was under so much pressure. In 91, he was under so much heat that I decided that the only way that I could stop was to go ahead and make a wager. So I bet him 500 bucks that I could stop drinking and smoking pot for a year. Didn't tell him I didn't quit everything. I'd gotten drinking. So I didn't handicap him, but he started drinking. I never collected my money. Ten years after that, he came into the rooms. Since then, and always will be, one of my best friends. He grabbed hold of it. He's a model of what a nice person he can really be because he's honest and open and willing to do whatever it takes to go ahead and stay sober. So with that, I give it to Sohal. Good evening. My name is Sohal. I'm an alcoholic. 21 years later, I joined. I called you and said, I'm done. I was born in the Holy Land. I died when he was four. Left nine kids. And my oldest uncle, his name Habib, he's an alcoholic. I love your son, and more than that, you love your son about me. He gave me money every morning. Looked at my uncle Habib sitting, asked for something. And I just thought, because he'll give me the extra change. He let me taste the alcohol. I love the taste of alcohol since I was a little kid. I don't blame him. Father decided I was in seventh grade, close to age two. They have alcohol on the table. Nobody says don't drink this and that. I drank until I, from the get go. A thousand people in the village. So literally, G, with a microphone. There's a wedding at the Elia's family house. I climb on the roof like a monkey and I sleep until it's fixed. Here I am, ninth grade, playing the same pattern. It was not good in Arabic teachers named Gabby. One of the teachers had it with him. He said, you're so smart. What are you doing in your life? Either you quit, if you need anything, come to my targets to go to target math, physics, chemistry classes. Continued my pattern with the weddings. Continue in college. I have Arabic-Palestinian. I'm an RA from my father. Concrete, not make a difference. CCU trauma, 1992, they fired me again. 82. The same thing, and they gave me a letter. One time a girl, I wake up every morning, was never late on an English. She worked in a liquor store. Men, people, I used to be the head nurse of hop. Smoked my weed, and have a 12 pack with me all day long. Hell with nursing. And I'm making business, borrowed money to buy a lawnmower, but it's actually not far away from here, Taco Hill. And I bought a weed eater, because they said, if I have to go to work for this guy, I need a brand new truck to make it to work. Correct the truck first day I started my business. Oldsmobile, it down, and on the right, that was up. We had the bet about my beer, I remember. From the get-go, if I make a mistake when I talk, correct me on the spot. My teacher, more than a brother. He talked smart, called me, said, we need to landscape this. I said. What do you think about landscaping? I cut grass. Saving company, we went, met with the customer. We go to the nursery, and he will tell me this and that. Invoices in the bar, talking about the Falcons. Drunk, lucky, never got to be back home. Treated that depression. All the time, I want to go back home. I don't want to live here, so I want to sign papers. Two years talking to a gentleman about a business there. Came back, 97, we bought a bigger house, and I thought, this is it, that's my life. I've done it many times. Gifted a Nissan truck when I was drunk one time, off the ground. I hit people. My personal, I was responsible. Boy, when we sent him, they ordered a stretcher for him, to carry, to hold his knee instead of treating him. Cost us $2,200. They did the MRI, and the kid is addicted to. After that, he started shooting heroin. We did not know, until one day somebody called me and said, so he came with my son. And, because when I called, that was very hard for me. The night, my uncle died from his, one liter of scab. And my brother said, he drank a whole, you have done anything. At that time, we already had, uncle died, to go to counseling. When my wife, she said, what that counselor going to do? What do you think? They know more than me. Cuss words. They were argued over everything. Hit the wall, solved my problem with her. Thanks God, I didn't do it. On Wednesday, she, with the counselor, the next Wednesday, we go together, oh boy. And I'm ready to, I mean, if I had a gun, I would have killed. Because, one of the last meetings, the evening, your family, but your alcoholism and your drinks, running in landscaping, a million dollars a year. As of today, this is the last time I drink. She said, do you mind? I said, you know what? Because of you said that, I want, my sister got her Ph.D. I'm going to Prague to celebrate. She said, okay, we'll come and celebrate. I took with me my wine. Not do that. I'm involved, they have Christmas market. I'm going to Prague to celebrate. They have Christmas market and beers. I stopped drinking. Six hours. Spend a month over there. My priest went to his house. He invited me because I'm a good guy. I said, I don't drink. No, no, no. You got to drink. We have a meeting on Wednesday. This is not, I could pick and choose Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays. No. Here's my teacher. And he is doing so well. Twenty-one years later, after our bed, we go and we sit down. And the minute, my life in unmanageable, you guys heard about it. My dad didn't come to believe that there's a power of grace to restore me to sanity. He said, I don't believe it. To do with my alcohol. It's going to work out by the end of the day. Things are going to happen. Let it go. Let God. I said, what God has to do with it? The truck broke down. Just let it go. Let that pressure go. You have a new boss now. Remember that then? He told me, I have a new boss. Daily government, to my dad, everybody. Listen to this. I work with others. I have sponsees. AA. Most of the people I work with, they don't know me. They don't know me. They don't know me. They don't know me. They don't know me. I have sponsees. AA. Most of the people I talk to is AA. My wife and I, I took my wife to the first Al-Anon meeting. When my son recovered from his addiction, we took him to a program. We went to an Al-Anon meeting with the family. He told me six meetings, Al-Anon. I came here with the table there, and I continued in the program. Work in the program is, they call me, and one of them, I still have my died in our house. I recover. I let go. I'm my God. Last day, I'm grateful. I have people to call. My wife, with my wife, over small, this Sunday, over some stuff, I didn't hear what she said, and we argue. To put the rug down. At least we have a rug. But the thing is, it did not last forever. I would see where my part is. I thought, I saw what you said. Something was afloat now in my program. When my son and I, we had a fight, an argument about something, because he relapsed, and now, thanks God, he is. He is in recovery program. He's been sober since May 4th. And he's in a program as a counselor there. When I have issues with him, I called a friend. We sat down for an hour with my fourth step, and he called me back. He said, I love you, Dad. I'm ready to go. He could not walk from it. Twenty-five and some years, they know. Thank you once again for sharing your story. Just another this fight. Al-Anon. Get on that. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. And I try. Well I know my best defense in the struggle gets it.