Real Recovery Success Story
Matt K
For this week’s Real Recovery Sucess Story we had the opportunity to sit down with New Life House alumni Matt K.
New Life House: How old are you?
Matt: 21.
NLH: What’s your sobriety date?
Matt: March 10th, 2014.
NLH: What is your involvement with the house like now?
Matt: I give rides to the guys to meetings at least once a week, and I come over when I can, when I’m not swamped with homework for school.
NLH: You’re pursuing an EMT license right now right?
Matt: Yes, at CIEMT.
NLH: What’s that like?
Matt: It’s a lot of work, especially since it’s an accelerated 7-week course. So I’m basically doing homework every day except when I go to a meeting. The program is very intense, for obvious reasons, and if you show up late or if you don’t have above an 80% you automatically fail.
NLH: Wow that’s intense, what do you want to do with that?
Matt: I’d like to be an EMT for a year, then apply to the fire academy; I want to be a firefighter / paramedic.
NLH: How did you decide to pursue being a firefighter? Is that something you’ve always wanted to do?
Matt: Yes it’s been my dream since I was a kid, I was to scared that I would fail, that I wasn’t smart enough, and how I would look if I did fail to ever pursue this before now, but I finally decided to walk through the fear and pursue it now before it’s too late.
NLH: What about being a firefighter attracted you towards that career path?
Matt: It seems like a pretty cool gig and I can do active and manly things while at the same time help people. I like doing physical activities and I like helping people so it seems like a good fit.
NLH: Is there any way that New Life set you up for success in this endeavor?
Matt: Yeah, the house taught me how to live my life functionally and gave me the tools to live on my own once I moved out. I never had a job before I was in the house, I actually ran away while I was in the house because I was so scared of working. (I came back obviously, and I’m glad I did) I learned how to suit up, show up, and be a worker amongst workers in order to get the job done effectively. They taught me the importance of showing up early and staying on top of and ahead of my workload.
NLH: What were your biggest struggles in the house?
Matt: I had a really hard time learning how to be honest and implementing integrity into my life. I had never even attempted to be honest before the house, so it took me a while to understand the importance of it in theory and in practice. I also had a really hard time “showing up” for my life, I had always kind of sat on the sidelines and expected things to happen for me – they obviously never did, and luckily the house taught me how to show up and go after my goals.
NLH: What is the most important thing you’ve learned since moving out of the house?
Matt: I have really learned the importance of taking charge of working my own program, and implementing it into my daily life. Everything from going to meetings, being of service, calling my sponsor and living honestly, has made me feel better, be more productive, and live in a fulfilling manner. I have gone through phases where I didn’t make theses things a priority, and I have learned from those phases because I made a few mistakes that could have easily been prevented.
NLH: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Matt: I’m so grateful for New Life, they taught me how to live and showed me the way. I always have a place to go if I’m ever struggling, and this has been very important to myself and my recovery.
Last Updated on September 11, 2024
