I Went To My First AA Meeting Today
Scary, Surreal, Emotional
I finally did the thing I had always resisted.
I did it with the same unconscious impulsivity that would often see me in the bottleshop reaching for my usual 2 bottles of Sem Sav Blanc.
I woke up, thought of going, cancelled my pilates class, had a shower, got dressed, made a coffee, got in the car, drove.
The meeting was in a hall at a Catholic Monastery 20 minutes away. Somewhere I had driven past 100’s of times. It is a big complex. Would I even find the meeting?
Because it is AA after all, does that mean there are no signs pointing the way so as to protect people’s anonymity? What if someone I knew saw me go in? What if I knew someone there? What if it was a tiny, tiny group and my status as a newcomer would make me feel like I had a beacon on my head?
In the end, there no need to worry about that, I saw a few people all walking through the grounds in the same direction and then I saw the 5 large — VERY LARGE- signs. “AA” in big letters, red on a white background. There was no hiding now!
The Greeting
Two women around my age were a little way ahead of me on the path. Surely they couldn’t be going? They looked…normal. They were laughing and chatting. They paused and…
