27 Years
Another year of sobriety glides by silently, but I'll break the silence. Way back when in my small town, my Friday night AA group would celebrate "Birthday Friday" on the last Friday of each month. Even in what was our largest group of the week, everyone knew who had a birthday that month, but this was the night it was formalized. A friend would stand up an make a short introductory speech about one birthday person and present that person with a chip. Then someone would ask the birthday person how he/she did it, and that called for another short speech, and that routine kept on usually for maybe 5 or 6 times with applause, celebration, and congratulations, until all the birthdays that month were accounted for. We had a birthday cake and coffee, and the meeting was adjourned. I always enjoyed that meeting, and on Birthday Friday, we would have a huge turnout, maybe as many as 40 people. It was always the biggest meeting of the month.
And no, I didn't wait until after the holidays to get sober, at least not consciously. It just happened that my last drink was on Jan 3rd, which was followed by 5 days of climbing the walls and not the best week in my life, but 5 days later things came together when I made a commitment to stay sober for good, and that's the day I celebrate as the actual beginning of my recovery. I had found a group that understood, and I finally accepted that I would always fail in attempts to drink like a gentleman. Yet the last drink is customarily considered one's birthday. And in retrospect that is probably right even if it's followed by a few white knuckle days.
Best wishes to all newcomers, and thanks to everyone else for being here.