My mind instantly started picturing things I got away with when I was a kid due to my ninja skills. At least that was the way I looked at it. It was the 80's and ninjas and karate ruled my adolescence.

So, on those nights when my parents were watching TV while I was supposed to be sleeping, it was purely an exercise in stealth when I managed to sneak to the kitchen, extract a can of Mountain Dew from the 'fridge, open said can, and then consume the contents in my room without detection.

Faking being sick in the bathroom at school in order to go home early was just smart thinking and beautiful execution.

Ripping shingles off of the baseball dugout roofs and using them for throwing star practice was just a practical use of resources and evading the janitors that caught me was extra impressive due to the lack of a smoke bomb like the Ninja Turtles have.

And finally, scaling the school wall to get on the roof at 8 years old was just an unimaginable feat that to this day, I still don't understand how I accomplished it without falling. Well, besides the ninja training.

Now, looking at the list I just provided, I see characteristics that were influential in me staying stuck in active addiction for some time. Deception is obvious. Justifying things that I know I shouldn't be doing always accompanied my actions.

But I also remember taking punishments for my sisters too. I do care about other people. My actions may have not always displayed that, but that's a big slab of what saved me. I had to learn to put that above all my motivations. Care about people first. And that included me! So that's the skill I'm training every day now. Just caring about everything. But I'm still a ninja. Recovery Ninja?