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Mike |
Mike graduated from the New Life program in May 2003, and has continued on in the post-graduate program as he pursues a Land Use major at Metropolitan State College. His goal is to obtain certification in Geographic Information Systems, which focuses on the manipulation of spatial information in a database, as well as a bachelor's degree. In the fall of 2003, he was one of only eleven students to receive the "Student to Watch" award, honoring his achievements in spite of severe obstacles. The obstacles in Mike's life were severe enough. He started drinking in high school. His father, an auto mechanic and a heavy drinker, influenced him. "He was definitely an alcoholic," Mike remembers. Mike managed to stay sober for 8 years after completing a 30-day rehabilitation program in 1991, but then relapsed. "Alcoholism is insidious, it's an insanity," he says now. "Eventually the addiction just takes over." His binge drinking went on for about two years. Evicted from his apartment, he began living in motels. "There's a whole culture of people living in motels as well as living homeless on the street. It's part of the spiral, and usually it's downward," he says. "I did that and was able to drink and maintain for while, until Labor Day of 2000." "I went on a final binge, where I wasn't working at all, just holed up in some motels," he recalls. "I was hocking my tools to pay for rent and food and booze. Eventually I quit eating and it put me in the hospital with severe pancreatitis." The vicious drinking binge cost him his pancreas and spleen, and the doctors were not certain he would live. Before coming to the Mission, he spent two months in intensive care, and then two more months in a physical rehabilitation facility because he had lost the ability to walk. His rehabilitation caseworker recommended the Mission's New Life program at the Lawrence Street facility. When he entered the program, he was still very ill and his recovery was complicated. He recounts his rough start, "I was 'Tube Boy' at the Mission, because I had a 6 inch tube sticking out of my side. Miraculously, that healed. I was pretty feeble through Phase III. I didn't have any appetite. Someone told me I looked like a refugee from a concentration camp. I was just stooped over and shuffling. Now I've put on some weight and I'm getting my energy back." Like many New Life participants, Mike was initially unsure if he could finish the program. "When they tell you you're in-house for 6 months-you can't work or do anything [outside the Mission]-that sounds like an awfully long time," he says. "...But it turns out that's what God meant for me. Sometimes you don't realize how negative you can be until you step away from it. The Mission gives you the chance to do that." He says the Christian focus of the program made the difference in his recovery, "It saved my whole life. I really enjoyed getting to know the scriptures better." Since his experience in the New Life program, Mike can approach relationships and other issues in life more positively. "Drinking was a good way to keep relationships superficial," he admits. "What I have done now, that I didn't do after the 30-day program was set up a support system. It was one of my stated goals coming in here-I realized I needed to do that." "It's never too late to start doing what's right." Mike had been an auto mechanic for 20 years, but following in his father's footsteps turned into a career of frustration. "Coming to the Mission has been my chance to regroup and follow my passion-maps, geology, geography, stuff like that," he says, adding that those topics are all included in the Land Use major. He is thinking of a career in water rights. "That's something I can be passionate about." "With God's help, I feel really good about the future." *Mike's story appears in the June 2003 issue of the Chronicle. Click to donate and start "Changing Lives in the Name of Christ" |
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