Thank you all for the comments.
SaturatedSeize - congrats on your progress! I definitely relate to blaming others for problems that are entirely my own. One of several goals I have for my 30s (in addition to sobriety) is to take more responsibility for my actions and to recognise that I'm the one that ultimately controls my destiny. In my 20s, there was a lot of expecting things to fall into my lap. In terms of breaking the cycle, I'm going to be proactive about recovery - go to meetings, post on here, tell friends upfront that I won't be drinking with them anymore (which I've begun doing).
Gabe1980 - please do.
thomas11 - thank you for the kind words.
Quit290117 - thanks for the post. Thinking about what I can achieve with my life is definitely a big motivation. I feel annoyed when I think about where I might be had I stopped drinking at 27 so I understand you wishing you had stopped at 30. I'm sure there at people in their 40s who wished they'd stopped at 36! I'm sure we can both still achieve a lot
Hevyn - thank you for the kind message.
BDTL - I will definitely put that on my list of books to read. I love self-help books as well as anything to do with sobriety. I'm sorry about your AA buddies - I met several people at rehab who had health issues from drinking so the seriousness of the disease is definitely not lost on me. I
love the idea of seeing how healthy I can get. I have been pretty good about going to the gym over the last 5 years ago (sometimes even with a hangover!) but I have noticed how nights out tend to undo weeks' worth of progress, which is incredibly frustrating. I'd like to see what I can look/feel like without the hindrance of alcohol.
GrayP - that's very kind of you!