On March 15, 2011 the residents from Back 2 Basics Soberliving and I headed to the Grand Canyon. It’s funny that I’ve lived in Arizona my whole life and I have never been there. I always thought of the Grand Canyon as just be a big hole in the ground. When we got there it definitely succeeded my expectation.The first day we were there, we went on a few mile hike to explore the scienic view. It was really beautiful looking at all the different landscapes and walking around the top gave me an idea of how vast and incomprehensible the Canyon is. I now see why it’s the Seventh Wonder of the World. Once back at the camp, the residents and I used the Life Skills that were taught to us and prepared a delicious dinner on an open fire. Our group was then educated through a presentation on the types of endangered species there are in the Grand Canyon alone.
The next morning was a Wednesday and I woke up around 6:30am and found that no one else was awake. I decided to go on a walk by myself. During the walk I walked up on around 20 elks, it was pretty awesome. You could tell they were use to people, because I was standing only a few feet away from some of them. I walked back to camp and decided to make some breakfast while I waited for everyone else to wake up. We went on the Bright Angel Trail that day, which is a 3 mile hike down and then 3 miles up. The hike was easy down. I wanted more of a challenge, so my friend, a young woman in recovery as well and I decided to run up the last 1 ½ mile. It was cool pushing each other to do better and accomplish something we said we were going to do. That’s were I feel I am in my life and where I am in my recovery and sobriety. They say this program’s about action and I believe it. Nothing is going to change around you until you change. I keep saying I’m going to change, but now I’m taking action and I have never been happier.