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My name is Justin Luke Riley - I am a young person in long-term recovery, and for me that
means for me that I am an asset to my community, I am a better husband, and a better son. That
also means that I haven't used alcohol and drugs since 2007.
[music]
In the beginning of my alcohol and drug use, alcohol did for me what I couldn't do for
myself. I felt better about myself, I could talk in front of people. I could go to school
and be okay, but eventually alcohol and drugs took everything from my life. My happiness,
my family, the few friends that I had to my name. It just took everything from me. Before
I found recovery I could have been in a room full of people and felt alone and scared,
and hopeless. I didn't like the way I looked, I didn't like the way I sounded, I just didn't
like who I was. When I was 19 years old I had attended my 7th treatment program, and
finally finally after all those years, and different kinds of meetings that I had gone
to and met with a lot of great people something finally clicked.
And for me that was learning that I could contribute to life. That even in my circumstance
that I had something to give to someone else. I heard a message that I had never heard before,
I heard people using words like helping out God's kids. And I just never heard that before.
The best way that I ever heard faith explained is that faith is like film and develops best
in the dark. And in my case early on in recovery and even later on in recovery there was a
lot of darkness. Leaders that had helped me even get to where I was at that point in time
they had passed away, committed suicide, or they themselves had over dosed, or even gone
back to prison in some cases.
When I was able, to resolutely make a decision that I was no longer going live with alcohol
or drugs in my life regardless of circumstance, my life started to change. I was able to add
value to other people's lives outside of my own. If you would have told me 5 or 6 years
ago that my dad was going to be the best man at my wedding and my family and friends were
going to come together on one day to see me marry a woman that I never could have imagined
to be with for the rest of my life. I just wouldn't have believed you, I would have never
thought that my life today could be so extraordinary. Not only filled with faith and family, but
a lot of fun, I get to meet with some amazing people all over the country, that are also
young people in recovery and also people outside of this recovery movement that absolutely
believe in what we are doing. And that is helping other people and seeing what we can
do to contribute to society. My vision for the recovery movement at any age is that people
hear a message of hope, and they hear a message of solution. That they learn at any age from
any level of experience that they have something to offer someone else and that there is hope
and there is solution for everyone.