My name is Willie and I am an alcoholic. I was looking through some papers and among them, I found an article that I wrote to Roundabout when I was seven years sober. That was in 1996 and I thought to myself that it was time I put pen to paper again. After all AA has done for me over a long time now, it's time that I showed the gratitude that I feel.
Before getting sober, I had been in a really bad way and I was sometimes longing for my misery to end one way or another. The incessant craving for alcohol led to the three-week bouts of drinking with horrendous withdrawals afterwards that left me weak and sick for a long time. Yet I always got better and, when my finances would allow it, back to the drink I would go.
One day I called up a man that I knew attended AA meetings and he got me to the doctor and into a clinic in Inverness called Dunain House. I wish I could say I didn't drink again after that but it was not to be so. I came out and attended a few meetings but I was drinking between meetings and lying about it when I was there. Another eighteen months went by before I got into that clinic again and then I attended my meetings and learned how to listen amongst other things.
My fellows in our little meeting at Kylestrome taught me what being sober meant - not just putting the cork in the bottle but about it being a way of life. I began to appreciate what normality of life meant and I began to learn how good life could be without a drink. I attended my first convention and couldn't understand how people enjoyed the singing and dancing in the evenings without a drink but gradually, it became so with me. I love my meetings. I usually attend several conventions each year and they are vastly enjoyable for me.
I now realise how we are all there for each other. We give each other the support that we need and why a new member is a joy to us all. I am now an old man but thanks to AA, a very, very happy and contented one. Thank you all for keeping me sober and contented over the last few years. May the God of our understanding be with you.

WILLIE
Kylestrome