Hello everyone, I guess let me start by introducing myself a little bit. My name is Matt Rybicki and I have the privilege to be the newest part-time employee here at 217 Recovery. (a step up from my previous volunteer spot) I have been facilitating a Recovery Dharma meeting on Sunday mornings since August of last year and also one of the original members of the Recovery Dads group there as well.(now called Parenting in Recovery)....Enough shameless plugs of my classes though, back to the intro. I am a father of 5 beautiful children ages from 3-14, am currently enrolled in school full-time at NMC here in Traverse City, and a full-time employee at Spanglish(best Mexican food in TC!) Needless to say I keep myself busy. One of the most exciting things going on in my life right now is that I have the opportunity to take part of the study abroad program this summer in India! (that's right you heard it right India, not Indiana, like India, the mecca of all religions in the world) I'll save more on that for another post....My journey here, today, writing this blog is what I should be talking about. Last year on January 3rd, I checked myself into Dakoske Hall after decades of using and abusing anything I really could get my hands on, but my most recent battle that had me on the doorsteps of a rehabilitation facility was crystal meth, fireball, and tequilla. Beaten, battered, not much will to continue on, I walked into what I had imagined and feared to be society's last prison for me (my own prison as well), where I will never be looked at the same again, will never be able to achieve my hopes, dreams, and aspirations, never be able to be with my kids again. I felt my friends, family, God, everyone had abandoned me and here I stood, on the doorstep to hell. Boy was I fucking wrong! Thankfully and maybe by the weird ways this Universe works it was quite the opposite, people were laughing, joking around, hugging, I mean this shit was crazy! I thought maybe I went to the wrong place and ended up in a mental hospital or something. But back to the whole coincidence/Universal energy whatever you want to call it. The first meeting I had that day after getting checked in and my stuff in the room, I come downstairs and here sits these guys from some podcast talking about fun in recovery, laughing, having this essence about them that they were like genuinely happy, and they were in recovery too? After listening to mostly Corey talk the whole hour while making fun of Justin and his mom, butt stuff jokes, and road trip stories, I forgot that I was in this supposed hell, and started thinking to myself maybe one day I'll be cool enough to do that one day. And well here we are, not claiming that I'm cool, but if you are who you hang around with, I'd say Corey, Marney, Justin, Mitch, and Kim along with all the other amazing rockstars I encounter on a daily basis, then I'd have to say I'm on the right track!
Momma I made it!
All jokes aside I am extremely grateful of the opportunity to be a part of this company, this community and all those who paved the way and have shown me that it is possible to have fun and not use, to love myself, and how to be happy. And to those who think they can't do it or that it's just a pipe dream, I'm here to tell you it is possible and We Do Recover!