Why My Third Year Of Sobriety Has Been The Most Challenging So Far

We’re All Just Earth Suits Passing By On This Train Of Life

George Kalantzis
5 min readJul 1, 2022
Page From Nowhere To Go

A lost, lonely boy,
the battle with my
demons began.

Through the eyes
of a troubled teenager,
addictions I ran.

I’m sixteen years old in the hospital with a tube down my throat and charcoal teeth after being dared to drink a thirty-rack of Budweiser. Alcohol poisoning isn’t acceptable at a young age, so on Wednesday, I went to a teenage group therapy session with substance abuse counselors for one of my classes.

I enter the session embarrassed as I look around and see others like me.

I smile and think, “all my life, I thought I was an outsider, but now I realize I’m not alone.”

I sit in silence, listening and observing the stories of kids I desperately wanted to be like. From drugs and alcohol to prescription pills, everyone in the room represented a broken relationship with themselves and a powerless addiction to make life seem more manageable.

The counselor says, “George, you had quite an eventful weekend. Do you see how addiction starts and ends with pain?”

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George Kalantzis

George is a professional storyteller, a dad to a sassy and adventurous eight year-old girl, and the author Of Nowhere To Go