My name is Tommy Bennett. I have been a vendor for Street Sense for five years, and today, I can proudly say that I have been clean and sober for six years. I began my journey to recovery on May 27, 2003 after roughly 25 years of addiction to drugs and alcohol.
My recovery began when I had the opportunity to spend a year in an after-care outpatient rehabilitation program. Around the same time that I got clean, I began vending papers for Street Sense. This opportunity, combined with the support and tough love I get from my friends (especially Christina), has helped me to keep positive and stay sober. I am an alumnus of NA (Narcotics Anonymous) and am on my way to earning my high school GED. I plan to become a drug counselor and hopefully, by God’s grace, He will lead me and give me the strength to guide someone else who wants help. I want to give back and help other people get to where I am.
Being sober is sometimes hard, but I have to do what I’ve got to do to always keep myself with my sobriety. By God’s grace, he gives me the strength to go on. I have learned to reject the life I had and the things I used to do. I live at the 801 Shelter and I see a lot of people doing what they’re doing, what they’ve always done, but I have found I don’t have to do what they do. I can’t let what they do bother me. I learned, though, that it’s easier for them to lead me in than it is for me to lead them out. That’s why the people who I used to call my friends, I now call my associates.
I would tell anyone who wants to get sober that if you want what I’ve got, it’s simple: you have to change the people, the places, and things – the people you hang out with, the places you hang out, and the stuff you do.
I should get housing soon, and this time, when I get it, I’ll know how to avoid those people, places and things. Even though I’ve been in some trouble since getting clean, I still didn’t have to use to get through what I went through; I just went through it. I learned what my sponsor says is true: “You go through it, and tomorrow will be different. You’ll see stuff, and it’ll make you stronger.”
I can’t take my sobriety for granted. People like me, we have to remember where we came from, where we’ve been, and what we’ve done. The hardest part of sobriety was the beginning, but you never give up on trying for what you want. Sometimes you bump your head, but you have to keep going.
For six years, God has given me the strength and the will to keep me sober and keep me focused on what I’ve got to do. If I don’t bother it then it don’t bother me.
