If you spend enough time in and around 12 step meetings, you’ll assume the narratives of other people.

You’ll regurgitate their beliefs, rather than your own.

We’ll say we never had a choice, and looking back, we’ll realize we really didn’t.

Because the truth is: we’re powerless over every choice we’ve ever made before the next one.

We’ll lump our past experiences into a narrative of disease and entropy. We’ll assume a story of powerlessness, and then, we’ll accept it.

We’ll look at ourselves and see a person we barely know. We’ll feel ashamed, embarrassed, and even frightened.

We’ll face the person we were and try to make sense of what we can do to change the past.

And we’ll realize we can’t.

We’ll understand that we don’t have to be defined by the things we did, but instead, have an opportunity to be defined by the things we do.

The person we used to be will cease to exist, only to be summoned upon as a character for our own story. An entity that can be shared, and assumed, for the benefit of other people.

We’ll realize that everything we do makes a difference. And we won’t need anyone else’s story to supplement our own. We won’t need cliches or metaphors.

We won’t have to quote text to prove our experience.

We’ll realize that we always have a choice and just be:

Honesty.