![\"\"](\"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_14051-1.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAlex is having a happy new year. \u201cIt\u2019s good, because I am<\/em>!\u201d she smiles. In fact, as we sat down with her for our interview, all Alex wanted to talk about are things for which she is grateful. There are many, and she ticked them off for us, one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Importantly, she has recovered. This is huge for a twenty-something who used to be completely powerless over her addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Alex first arrived to CORE, in May 2021, she was a broken soul, despairing even of life. \u201cMy addiction had me by a choke hold<\/em>,\u201d she remembers, \u201cEven though I\u2019m telling myself, you\u2019re not going to do this anymore, I\u2019m still doing it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex finally had bottomed out while living alone in a house without power or water. Her cold surroundings matched perfectly with the emptiness she felt in her heart. She had detached herself physically and emotionally from everyone and everything. “I didn’t trust anybody<\/em>,” she says, “I kept things puddle deep for years. I didn’t get close to anyone, and I was that way until I came here to CORE<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n While her addiction wasn\u2019t materially different from anybody else, it was plenty serious. Alex was powerless, and she knew it. To illustrate her dilemma for us, she related a story about overdosing, and doing more drugs immediately thereafter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was, like, minutes from death. So, the police officer Narcaned me. I came to in the ambulance. From the hospital they took me to jail, where I\u2019m sitting waiting to be booked. And here\u2019s the insanity of my addiction. While I’m sitting in this area, I remember that I still have drugs on me. I did them right there. I\u2019m at jail. I just died. And I\u2019m doing more drugs. That\u2019s the insanity.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her mom paid for her admission into CORE. Once here, Alex received lots of encouragement and began working her steps. She mentioned several sources of inspiration during her early days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One is our women’s coordinator in Springfield, Kim Stewart. “She will always direct you back to God<\/em>,” Alex says. Another is her former house manager, Nicole Nelson, “who walked me through the Steps and was my Fifth Step partner<\/em>.” Still another source, who we didn\u2019t anticipate but nevertheless are glad to hear about, are the fine people at the Timken Company, her place of employment. “I’m pretty close knit with them,<\/em>\u201d Alex tells us, \u201cThey’ve been so supportive. They’re such good people<\/em>!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n A big, early challenge for Alex was trusting others, including God. To do this she had to overcome fear. Referencing the AA Big Book, Alex told us that fear touched about every aspect of her life. It was an evil and corroding thread, and her existence was shot through with it. Of her struggles, Alex remembers \u201cI said to myself, okay, I\u2019m going to try to do it a different way now. I\u2019m around good people, and it\u2019s going to be okay. I\u2019m here to learn a new way to live. My way wasn\u2019t working, but maybe God\u2019s will<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As she worked the Steps, a remarkable change began to happen within her. Alex\u2019s character and attitude toward life began redeveloping \u201cfrom the inside out<\/em>\u201d along new lines, and her obsession was lifted. She felt like a divine hand placed her in a position of neutrality \u2013 safe and protected \u2013 with respect to drugs and alcohol. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To Alex, the best evidence of her transformation is that, today, she confidently relies on God in all things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I feel at peace now, whatever happens. I won\u2019t force things my way, because I know God\u2019s got this. I don\u2019t know how to explain it, but I\u2019m just okay with letting things happen now, because they will happen the way God wants them to be. I don\u2019t have to worry or stress about anything. I tried that, did that, and I didn\u2019t like how that felt, or how it turned out.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another thing Alex is especially thankful for is that recovery allows her to be a good daughter, sibling, and aunt, for her family. \u201cThey\u2019re excited to see me now. It\u2019s not like, oh there\u2019s Alex, hide all your valuables<\/em>,\u201d she laughs, and adds \u201cIt\u2019s the best feeling to see them and have a healthy relationship with them. I don\u2019t have to worry if this is the last time I see them. I can appreciate my family now that I\u2019m recovered<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex is also thankful that she can help make a difference in the lives of others. When she first came to CORE, she arrived \u201cwith only the clothes on my back.<\/em>\u201d Although she didn\u2019t have any money, Miss Kim took her shopping anyway, suggesting that she would pay it forward when she could. Alex has never forgotten this, and recently something happened that\u2019s allowed her to help others in a big way: she bought a new car! \u201cI\u2019ve always been okay with just staying at home, but some people want to go out and do things<\/em>,\u201d she says, \u201cso, it\u2019s a cool way to help. Like, if they\u2019re struggling with money, they don\u2019t have to get an Uber<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still another thing Alex is thankful for is CORE. \u201cI\u2019m in a safe place, with friends,<\/em>\u201d she tells us, \u201cthis is a place where I can grow and find myself. It\u2019s a great place to be<\/em>.\u201d Additionally, she considers everybody within the Springfield program to be a tight knit group. Everybody is working the 12 Steps, and that makes CORE an oasis from everything else out there. She adds, \u201cSo I\u2019m big on positivity. It\u2019s contagious, you know? With roommates, if I\u2019m negative, it\u2019s going to rub off on you. So I try to keep it positive \u2013 always<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n What are her plans for the future? For now, Alex is content to mature in her recovery at CORE and enjoy spending time with her family and CORE friends. She works hard at her job, and looks forward to advancing in her career, too. We also heard that she\u2019s taking on responsibilities within her CORE house as a chore coordinator, and she\u2019s thinking about managing one of our houses someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We at CORE are so very pleased for Alex, and for her family! Our hope and prayer is that she will continue to grow in her relationship with God and seek to do His will in all things (yes, driving and following the rules of the road included!) God will provide a lifetime of recovery, and so much more, if we keep close to Him and perform His work well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexandria Powell\u2019s Happy New Year! This week, about 80 million Americans are just beginning self-improvement programs to fulfill their New Year\u2019s resolutions.\u00a0 Alexandria Powell is not among them.\u00a0 Twenty months ago, Alex began working the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. In this simple program, she found all the tools necessary to make her life extraordinary. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/core-usa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}