You know I thought there were a bunch of bully punks when I first got into the rooms, I was 52 years old and had what I considered kids at the time telling me to do this and do that!!! Who the hell did they think they were? I was an adult before a lot of them were born!
Funny thing, as time passed, I started really working the steps with a sponsor, all of a sudden those damn young punks that were pushing me around telling me what to do, turned into people that I had respect for because they know a whole lot more about getting and staying sober then I do/did. They were not pushing me around at all, they were trying to help me and I was so full of myself I foolishly thought they were bullying me.
One guy about 35 just came across to me an egotistical know it all, macho man when I first came into the rooms shared something in a meeting when I was about 4-5 months sober and it just clicked with me, he was a little rough around the edges, but he had about 6 years of sobriety and what had me thinking he was a jerk know it all turned out to be him sharing what I had been like.
I went up to him after that meeting and made amends with him for thinking he was a jerk! He looked at me kind of odd and said "Man you do not owe me an apology, I see me in you, and I know where you are coming from!" We are good friends now and I get a lot out of his shares.
I do not even want to think what I would have been like when I was in my 20's if I had been in the rooms then! I would have been busting some old timer up side the head if he had suggested a damn thing to me! How dare any one tell me what to do!! Obviously they do not know who I am!!!
For this alkie even though I was commited to following directions when I went into the rooms I had a darn tough time mentally not telling some folks where to go, now I love them to death because all they were doing was trying to help me, I was just to full of myself at the time to see it.