Alex Zemeckis
For me, this way of life began to dissipate, as it would for any adolescent growing up. Life began to get a bit more complicated. I started judging others as well as myself. Feelings of fear and unworthiness began to drive my life. My once rose-colored lenses of pure innocence turned dark and distorted. I craved that timeless sensation of skateboarding with my friends, yet I had already found a much better vehicle in order to get me to that euphoric place … drugs.
From Santa Barbara High School on, drinking and drug using was a painful 10-year journey of leaving town and coming back, leaving town and coming back. I put my family through agony while I did my best to make the outside world think I had it completely “together.” As time went on, the bumps in the road started getting bigger and the chase for contentment resulted in consequences of magnitude. I finally had to call it quits my junior year at San Diego State University in 2008. I was 22 years old, living in Pacific Beach, California. Enough was enough.
In this present day, I still live in San Diego after graduating SDSU in 2009. I visit my friends and family in Montecito frequently. I feel so blessed to have a magical sanctuary I can visit as well as call home. I take pride in growing up in this most beautiful place. I just wrapped up a 5-day visit to Santa Barbara where I attended the 2011 Addictions Treatment Centers & Professionals Consortium of California. (ATCPCC). It was a major conference, held at the Fess Parker Double Tree, consisting of some of the world’s most renowned residential treatment centers, clinical professionals, and interventionists. I represented the clinical mentoring program I currently work for called AIM House. The AIM House team hosted an incredible event at my mom’s house on Hot Springs Road, as well as attended the conference in full.
The reason why I’m telling you this is, because three years ago when I was isolated and paralyzed by my addiction, I could have never imagined I’d be doing what I’m doing today. That was then, and this is now. Today, I get to work with young adults providing the mentoring and coaching services I once needed myself. I work directly with some of the world’s most renowned clinicians and treatment professionals, helping people get back on their feet from diabolical addictions. The work I do is a two-way street; by helping others, I help myself as well.
My life is still far from perfect. I sometimes have horrible feelings, moments of depression and catastrophic fear, yet I look at them as opportunities for growth rather than a place of victimhood and despair. They always seem to pass.
Decompressing at the Vedanta Temple, taking someone out to Starbucks on Coast Village Road, or making a brief visit to my school-family at the Santa Barbara Middle School … those are the simple joys I live for today. From what I knew “then” compared to what I know “now,” I gained one tremendous realization –Gratitude.
My goal is to get people to revisit that place of self-gratification and freedom we all once had as kids. I can’t make people do anything, yet I can help facilitate. Of course, we all had parts of our childhood that were dark and grim, yet those joyful, timeless memories can never be taken away from me. My life will never be as simple as it once was skateboarding MUS with the rose-colored lenses, but I can revisit those feelings that were lost for so many years. There is a lot going on in the world today that I can’t control and with which I do not agree, yet that is not a requirement.
Something I do have control over is my perspective. I get to choose what lenses I want to wear today, and I get to share blessings with others. Today I wear the lens of gratitude, and there is no better place to wear these glasses than right here in Santa Barbara with all my loving friends and family. A place I call home.
Alex works full time for AIM House Transitions located in Boulder, Colorado. He provides mentoring and life-skills coaching on the west coast. He also works as a consultant providing solutions for families regarding treatment and mentoring programs. He recently completed a masters program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica.
Loading ...
