I have a sponsee

[Blake]

FOr the first time....

I have been asked to asponsor people before, but I have allways said no, but this dude is someone I know from back in the day, I already have a relationship built up with him and I said okay when he asked after i talked to my sponsor about it...

Now I'm nervous...something new...it kinda scares me....

[Madalaina]

Blake,

That is awesome news!! I have a feeling that you are going to be a great sponsor!!

We can only keep what we have by giving it away!!

My sponsor told me that it was time for me to start sponsoring people, I don't have any sponsee's yet, but I am a lil nervous about it myself!

You are going to do just fine!!

Hugs, my friend!!
Alissa

P.S.
I'm trying to get down to the convention Sat. I'll let you know for sure, whenever I find out!!

[Time4Change]

That's GREAT, Blake! I'm so proud of you! I've been following your progress for the past year and I've learned a lot from your recovery, the ups and the downs, your honesty, openmindedness and willingness. I know you'll be an excellent sponsor. Congratulations!


Love ya!

Kelly

[windysan]

It's kinda like having a pet. Lots of responsibility. Be careful Blake. People can be feral sometimes.

[Chance]

Originally Posted by windysan

It's kinda like having a pet. Lots of responsibility. Be careful Blake. People can be feral sometimes.

I like that, I know that when I had a little over a year clean time, a guy asked me to sponsor him. I asked my sponsor about it and he said yes. So I went ahead and did it. I don't think that I was really ready for it. It took a lot out of me and my program. I felt myself slipping back into some character defects because I wasn't focusing on my program.

Anyway Blake very proud of you, and of your program. Just remember to keep your program first...lead him through the steps....just as if your sponsor was doing it.

Vic

[Blake]

Having a sponsee rocks! You get to make them clean your house and cook your food and do your laundry........hehehehehe just kidding....

I took my sponsee to the Louisiana Convention this weekend and he LOVED it....he was all excited about hitting work shops and he got to hear Vito L speak on saturday night....bought a bunch of speaker tapes and was pestering me about when does he get to work some steps.......I told him that since he is currently on suboxone and not clean, that he needs to wait to work steps till he is clean, but feel free to read the basic text as much as he liked....

In talking with him about various things I noticed something awesome.....all the info I have built up in my head from being around for the last 15 months started comming out of my mouth.....words of my sponsors....stuff I picked up in meetings....stuff I read in the literature....stuff I read here.......it was kinda surreal.....and it made me fel like I was giving back what had been given to me......it was really cool....

[michski]

(((( Blake ))))) Congratulations on your next sober adventure! I didn't know how much program I actually had in me and how much I had grown until my first sponsee. You know that expression "you don't know you got it until you give it away"? Well, that's exactly true! This experience will put another feather in your self esteem cap... but don't forget to put your sobriety first and stick close CLOSE close to your own sponsor!

[Blake]

Originally Posted by michski

(((( Blake ))))) Congratulations on your next sober adventure! I didn't know how much program I actually had in me and how much I had grown until my first sponsee. You know that expression "you don't know you got it until you give it away"? Well, that's exactly true! This experience will put another feather in your self esteem cap... but don't forget to put your sobriety first and stick close CLOSE close to your own sponsor!

Yeah...I am sticking very close to my sponsor....in fact I'm keeping my sponsee close to my sponsor too.....after we talked a particular issues to death the other night....I had him call his grandsponsor to get another perspective on the issue......they talked for like 2 hours about it.....and funny enough, he said my sponsor told him pretty much the same thing.....imagine that.....

[unspun]

Congratulations...... I have found out recently that I don't wish to sponsor people from my past....using buddies. I had some reservations about it when one of my friends recently came into the rooms and asked me. I decided to do it and treated him just as any other sponsee. "call every day, right down exactly what you want from me as a sponsor, read the first chapter and highlight things that mean something to you, and don't pick up. After that we'll go over what you read and what you wrote down."

Well, he didn't want to do those things. I can't force anybody to do anything, but he told me... "come on, you're only treating me like this cause you're still pissed at me. You don't have anybody else do that in the first week." ....... oh come on now, that is the first week with all of my past sponsees. I guess he was looking for special treatment or something. An addict is and addict in my book. We're all equals

And this has happened one other time with an old buddy. Not just like that, but really similar. I'm not saying don't do it. The only current sponsee I have right now is and old buddy of mine. He really wanted recovery and kept his mind open long enough for the roots of recovery to take hold, and he's coming up on a year real soon.

Bottom line.....Sponsoring is a very rewarding part of my recovery.

[Blake]

thanks dude,

Yeah that's what I was worried about happening too....but so far so good.....he's taking his "homework" seriously and he is on a detox plan from the suboxone that should be done in a couple weeks....I told him upfront that if it didn't work out I'd tell him and he'd have to get a new sponsor....he respects my recovery b/c he knows exactally where I have come from and he see where I am today and I think that gives him hope....so far he doesn't question much of anything I say too much, but I also have him calling 4 other recovering addicts everyday so he can get different sides on different things.....and build a support group of dudes with good recovery.

THings are working right now.....hopefull they'll continue that way.....but my sponsor told me that it's my resposibility to stay honest and if I see it not working out, to tell the dude.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by Blake

Now I'm nervous...something new...it kinda scares me....

It's progress dude, progress and growth..