As a young girl growing up, I was well aware that boys were treated differently than girls. In some ways I guess, I was jealous but I was glad that I was a girl. I started going to parties at the age of 16 and there was always alcohol, but I drank in moderation. The guys always drank to get drunk. I never noticed that drinking was catching up to me, and when I graduated I went to college. My frst year was nothing but frat parties, drinking and sex. After my frst year, my parents said if I didn’t improve my grades, they were going to stop throwing good money after bad. My second year was a repeat of my frst year – parties, drinking and having sex. I left school, got married, had twins and stopped drinking for a long period of time. A lot of my friends were having marital problems. I noticed that the wives stayed while their husbands straightened their lives out from drinking. In contrast, I noticed that the husbands would leave when their wives had a drinking problem. I didn’t know what the story was, but I went back to drinking. Maybe it was out of boredom, but when the kids starting going to school, I started sitting around with the housewives and eventually the drinking caught up to me again. My husband was nice enough to give me an ultimatum, to either do something about my drinking or he would leave and take the kids with him. I went to a detox, but instead of following up and going to a rehab, I went back home thinking that I was cured. Needless to say, I picked up the drink and my husband left with the kids. With nothing to look forward, I drowned my sorrows in the bottle. I started sleeping around with different men, just for drinks. I got into a terrible car accident, I was driving with three times the legal limit of alcohol in my system. By the grace of God, there was no one hurt, and the DA, instead of sending me to jail, sent me to a rehab. I am sober now and have been for one-and-a-half years. I have a sponsor, sponsee and a host of female friends, but more importantly than all of that, I see my children again. I know that it is only by the Grace of God that I am able to tell this story and not be just another statistic. I pray every day to my Higher Power that I muster up the strength to stay sober just for today. If anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want my hand to be there.