I shared tonight at an AA meeting. It went alright. I only had 15 minutes to share so yesterday and today I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how I’d do it, but 15 minutes really wasn’t enough time to go through my story and hit all the high (actually low) points. On the train ride into the city I decided to do it entirely different than I’d planned. It was a great learning experience and if I’m asked to share again I’m sure it’ll be better and more thought out. I can’t expect myself to know how to do things (and be good at doing them) without trying or any real practice. There is certainly a learning curve to public speaking – a learning curve I’m very interested in finding more about out.

It was also not until I started to think about what I was going to share for this that I realized the manic episodes and my bipolar diagnosis were really a consequence of my using. Prior to today I’d always viewed them as separate (even if very intertwined) events. I’m going to have to think about this more. I’ve got a lot I should explore with that issue.

Gratitude List:
The opportunity to share part of my story
Connecting the dots
Getting a mattress in the mail today and getting back into the new house