Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics AnonymousI attended the Stepping-Stone meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous on a Saturday night at the St. Vincent’s Stress Center. The Stress Center is located at 8401 Harcourt Road, Indianapolis.
The impression of this meeting that I got was that a bunch of people got together to tell their sob stories about drinking. Everyone sat outside the building smoking and talking to each other when I first arrived. After entering the building, everyone it seemed, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then went to sit in the auditorium. The place was packed. There was standing room only. After everyone got settled the facilitator introduced himself.
The only thought that kept running through my mind was, “Why am I here?” Most of the people at this meeting were middle to upper class and white. There were more men than women. There were more middle-aged people then young people. Looking at some of the way the people dressed and the cars that they drove you could tell that some of these people had money.
I was extremely uncomfortable being there. To me the meeting was a waste of my time. I was bored. I knew that I did not belong in this room. This was not the place I wanted to be. I did not care that these people are alcoholics. I feel that they brought their problems on themselves. I did not want to hear what they had to say, and I did not care.
The only thing I learned from sitting in this meeting for the hour it lasted was not to drink. Unfortunately, I knew that before going into this meeting. I learned that alcohol is and/or was a way of life for these people. I also learned that since I have never had a drink, that I am not an alcoholic.
The speaker at the meeting was a Jane Doe. She talked about how her family moved here from Baghdad. She talked about how she had to sneak out of her house to be able to go on dates, as her parents would not permit her to do so. She was accepted to Indiana University at Bloomington. While in school she met a guy who introduced her to alcohol. The first time she drank, she got drunk and she lost her virginity all on the same night. At the beginning of her junior year at I.U., she met another guy who introduced her to the art of wine tasting and to cocaine. She dumped the first guy and started seeing the second guy. During the summer between her junior and senior year, her parents found out that she had had pre-marital relations, and she was banished from the family. The guy she was with moved to Louisville to...
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