Gary_R4 - Gary
My Story:
I had a good home life as a kid. We never had much, but we had enough and that should have been sufficient for me. But....I always wanted more, more, more. I was an addict waiting for the first drug.
I went to the third hardest engineering school in the nation and learned a lot. A lot of the wrong stuff that is. How to smoke pot and opium, snort coke, trip on all the many HC's around in the early 70s, and how to stay up all night/week on speed, etc, etc, etc.
After flunking out of college, I worked in many different types of fields. I was always pretty good with electronics, so I tried to do that most of the time. However after10 years of hardcore using, I couldn't handle doing it all the time and so went to doing factory work and then to construction work and then to being a basic bum. I stayed there for quite a while.
Finally my parents had had enough of me and asked me to go to treatment. I didn't really want to go. I had seen others go and they came back healthier and stayed clean for maybe a month or two or three. So what was the big deal? However, by that time I really didn't care what happened anyway. So I went. From there I spent about 2 1/2 months in a halfway house, then another 10 months in a 3/4 house. By that time I had been clean over a year, held the same job over a year, and had been promoted three times. There was no where else to go where I was working. So at about 21 months clean I went back to college. Some of my credits from 25 years previous were still good (OMG!). I was able to stay with it until I got a degree (With highest honors) in Electrical Engineering Technology. I got a job here in Mich designing microwave antennas and low noise amplifiers for automotive use. GPS, XM and Sirius satellite radio, cellphone, and even some AM/FM stuff. I have been at the same job over 6 years now. I am a grade III RF engineer even though my degree is only good enough to be a technician.
I have worked all the steps with sponsors and am going through them again (albeit rather slowly) for the fifth time. I have been and am currently sponsoring others. I chaired an Area in Indiana while going to college and working part time. I have been Area chair up here in Michigan. I have been a GSR in Indiana and again in Michigan.
At one time last summer, I had keys to a catholic church, a lutheran church, and a presbyterian church. Which is sorta weird considering that I am now a Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist following the Gelugpa tradition.
"What a long strange trip it's been"
Just waiting to see where it goes next.
Gary R.
da olde man
"May all beings have happiness,
may they be free from suffering,
may they know the joy that has never known suffering,
may they be free from attachment and hatred."
Om Mane Padme Humg
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