My name is Al, and I am grateful to be in recovery. My story started in a war zone--my home in East Harlem. I was a scared little boy looking for a safe place to hide. At the age of nine, I found such a place, Alcohol.

My father was called to school to pick me up because I was drunk in the fourth grade. I was beaten because he had to be called away from work, not because I was drinking alcohol. This was the beginning of a long period in which I drank, abused several substances and committed many crimes.

I dropped out of high school; I was unsuccessful in the Marines; and I never held a job for more than a few months. I have spent several years of my life in jails and prisons or on parole. I really don’t remember how many detoxes and rehabs I have been in, including those in the penal system. I went to NA meetings sporadically, but I guess I was not ready to commit to recovery yet.

In 2002 at the tender age of 43, I went into a long-term residential treatment center. Mandated by parole to a six to nine month program, I stayed 16 months. In order to graduate, which was not part of the deal with parole, I did the six months of out-patient after care. When I was done there with treatment, I was trained and hired by that company as a Junior Substance Abuse Counselor.

Since then, I have acquired a CASAC credential, have worked in several OASAS-licensed agencies, and I am now well-known and well-respected by my peers and the substance abuse treatment community here on Long Island and abroad.

I keep my recovery first, and I love my job. I was a tough nut to crack. Most people don’t need to go through what I went through to get clean and turn their life around but that is my story. I thank God first and foremost for my second...third...for another chance at life, and I humbly thank everyone who had a hand in my recovery. My desire is to spend the rest of my life giving away what was so freely given to me. I understand that is the only way to keep it...