Happy to report that it has been 18 years since the last time I ruined the holiday season with cocaine and alcohol. EIGHTEEN YEARS. My recovery is old enough to vote, have sex, and go to war.

If you have lost the plot in your life like I had lost the plot for so long back then, I hope you will imagine a different story for yourself. Start telling that new tale in the mirror, then to the people you meet. Edit out the parts that have been causing suffering and humiliation, then live that new story. Show the people in your life that things have changed by being different. Do this over and over. Wake up every single day and try and make the new story true. Zoom in on love and dogs and all the happy stuff you can find and I promise you, someday it will be.

(Photo: Josué Rivas for INDÍGENA)