For my Community Experience, I decided to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It was fascinating to go and listen to people's experiences and thoughts there. It was a much bigger meeting than I had anticipated. There were probably 40-50 people there and it was extremely organized. There were clear leaders who asked people to read passages from their book, they made announcements about future events. One of the things that I loved was that they celebrated the people who were experiencing landmarks of being sober: 6 months, 1 year, 2 years. etc. There was a man who was 19 years sober. It was almost surprising that someone who had been sober that long was still coming to meetings. There were a lot of people who were sober for quite a while. They spoke of how much meetings really helped them every single day. I also didn't realize that meetings were a daily thing for a lot of people. There were people from out of town, passing through, who needed to go to a meeting, so they stopped in at this one. The man who was celebrating 19 years being sober was a mentor for a number of people in the group. That was neat to see as well. It was such a community. I was so impressed with how much support they offered to each other and the humility each of them exhibited as they admitted how much they needed the program and each other. It was extremely admirable.
I didn't feel particularly disrupted about anything that happened, but more about how I had perceived alcoholics beforehand. I definitely had a very negative attitude towards them and didn't know how to change that. There was nothing that was as effective as coming and seeing them, not just in a real setting, but in a setting where they are openly discussing their challenges. I have a hard time doing that in my life, so it was a bit disruptive to see so many people being so open. However, I think I can learn a lot from that attitude and practice. It could help me help students meet challenges a lot better if I can learn to do that in my classroom.
In listening to these people, I was thinking about what these experiences would teach me about becoming a secondary educator. The first thing I thought about was dealing with students who have parents that suffer from alcohol addiction. I also considered dealing with students who have alcohol addictions themselves. Hopefully I won't deal with that second one much. But I thought a fair amount about the first. One of the most valuable things I observed is how much of a process this program is and how much the people there recognize the process of everything and support each other through it. Every person had a story, and most of the stories weren't just alcoholism, but of recovery and fighting. That makes me want to be careful about the stories that I apply to people--alcoholics aren't just drunkards, and their children are not just the kid of a drunkard. People all have stories, most of them full of effort and struggle to improve.
The lesson that I believe this deals with most is ability. I think that there is a lot of deficit thinking about people who suffer from alcoholism. It's a more noticeable disability because it consists of a behavior. I think it's more discriminated against, because of that as well. It increased my awareness of my stigmas that I hold against people who are alcoholics. I feel like I now have such respect for them and the challenges they face.
