We Are All Welcome

I was brought into the rooms of English-speaking AA in Playa del Carmen, a beautiful and full of contrasts town surrounded by one of the prettiest beaches in Mexico. I was attracted by my now sponsor's new way of life and the incomprehensible demoralization that more than 23 years of drinking and self-induced pain had left me in... My sponsor and I have been best friends since we were teenagers in Mexico City where we both grew up; basically, we’ve been together in all stages of each other's lives including drinking and using all sorts of drugs. We both moved to Playa del Carmen and both learned how to speak English by working in the tourist industry. Our ways parted but one day I heard that she had joined AA and changed her life—had stopped drinking but kept the essence of who she was. I couldn't believe it. But I wanted what she had.