| Testimony of
Linda R. continued
I had the privilege
of entering the next Life Skills Class. I
found it very intimidating at first and the facilitator was a
MAN!. Great!
Here I was in a class with a bunch of self centered
chaotic people and a male teacher who watched over us. At
that point I made a decision.
I realized that if I were to see these people as the
teacher (Michael Chubb) did, that I would have to sit by him. So
I did.
What I saw and
learned in that class changed my life.
It was there that I discovered myself. I
discovered that I was like a scared little girl, who had no
voice, and who would rather be miserable and pretend she was
happy for everyone else, rather than let anyone see the real
me.
Michael's wife Pat
often attended the class to assist him. I
actually found these were the days I learned the most. I
watched these two people work with the out of control clean
addicts. I
couldn’t figure out how they were able to watch and listen
to all the behaviors that went on, until I made a discovery. These
two people actual saw a persons’ heart and not their
behavior. Wow, how
could they do that? That was another step in my journey of
return.
As more and more was
offered to me in this class I discovered I was not a bad
person. I had done
some shameful things in my addiction but those behaviors were
not who I was. This
was a turning point for me as my self esteem began to grow. I
found my voice and actually spoke to people. My
fear of people was lessening and I was growing confident in
who I was becoming.
In this Life Skills
class we were given the opportunity to do a comedy act for our
graduation. I
jumped at the chance as this would be a great opportunity for
me to get out of my shell and speak in front of people. I
learned to work as a part of the group and to support and
encourage the other participants. We
worked together making up jokes, and then we practiced
speaking and performing in front of one another to gain
confidence for the big night of our grad. Many
times I decided to back out of this project but something that
I saw in Michael and Pat kept causing me to stay.
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