Recovery to me means a complete life change from the person I was during active addiction, to the person I am today. Recovery is a mental, spiritual and physical journey, and not just about the stopping of using drugs, but so much more than that. For the past eight years I have worked hard in my recovery to improve my life through the 12-step program I fully participate in. I am recovering from a lifetime of experiences such as trauma, domestic violence, sexual assault, and mental health struggles. As a result of that, and many people believing in me before I believed in myself, I ended up back in college at the age of 39. Through the process of recovery, I became employed as a case manager for our local drug court program and decided I wanted to go to school for social work. I will graduate with my associate's degree this month, then attend a 4-year university this fall for the social work program, then obtain my license for addiction counseling. This is an example of recovery at work in my life, and I am excited about my future helping other addicts to recover as I have.