The Long Reach of AA

For years before I landed in a rehab and then found my way to AA, I knew I was headed to prison. Like my alcoholism, I knew it but could not admit it. It didn't matter that my professional life and my personal life for the previous twelve years were chaos. Every day I started out full of fear and with a vow not to repeat yesterday and usually ended with going out for "just one or two." And with that lifestyle came the thinking that it was okay to embezzle money since I needed it. Of course, I would pay it back. And I always needed it and I was always going to pay it back. After eighteen months in AA, I began, at the age of forty-four, my two-year state prison journey.