“I started selling drugs at a young age,” Kyle recalls. “I was 15 or 16 at the time, and I after a while I started doing the drugs, too. I was in and out of jail, and I overdosed three times. I lost both of my parents to drug overdoses, too.
It wasn’t the life I wanted to live, but it was hard to see a way out.”
Two weeks into treatment at Renascent, Kyle received the difficult news that his mother had passed away.
“At that point I thought that no matter how hard treatment got, I should probably just stick it out and do it for myself,” he recalls. “I remember doing a lot of bad stuff in jail, and I didn’t want to do it anymore.
I owed it to myself to do the right thing.”
It was a commitment worth keeping. “Some days were especially hard,” he acknowledges, “but I’m so glad I stuck it out. The counsellors at Renascent were good to me, and I felt safe there. They made it easy to connect, and they set me on the right path.”
A year into his recovery, Kyle’s life couldn’t be more different.
“Today, there are lots of people in my corner who support me and have my back,” he says. He sponsors others, and not only has he not returned to jail, he’s completed a diploma and is seeking an apprenticeship that will allow him to afford his own place to live.
“I probably have 100 people in my phone I can call, and they would be willing to listen and talk to me,” Kyle says. “And I’m so grateful for that.”
He also cites his stepmother and grand-sponsor – both in recovery themselves – as his greatest sources of inspiration and support. “My stepmom is the first person I go to when I’m struggling with something,” he says. “She really understands, and she’s unbelievably helpful and supportive. And my grand-sponsor is so inspiring; he’s been in recovery for over 20 years and has transformed from someone who suffered from addiction to a guy who just seems to have it all. Both of them inspire me to do better, to keep doing what I’m doing.”
While not every day is perfect, he concedes that he’s “pretty happy” these days.
“One of the biggest things for me is to just keep applying the principles I’ve learned, and to pray to God every day,” Kyle shares. “I try not to take on too much, and to focus on what really matters. Doing what I’m supposed to do each day is what allows me to maintain the life I have now.
It takes work, and I see that clearly now. If anyone out there is struggling, they should know that the process is worth it.
Just tough it out for the first little bit before the miracle happens.”
