This is a humorous talk, given by Alcoholics Anonymous speaker Jack D., whose drinking story was characterized by a series of geographical changes, following bouts of unmanageability. Jack D.'s sobriety story is characterized by growth, and gratitude.

 

He begins his talk by sharing his experience as a freshmen blackout drinker, at Penn State. After graduating college, he enlisted in the United States Air Force to be a spy, which he notes was a great job to have as an alcoholic, because not only did he not want to tell anybody, but now he couldn’t.

 

In 1972 he met with a priest, who understood alcoholism ran in Jack's family. After speaking with the priest, Jack agreed to go to an AA meeting. He walked in, and everyone looked like they had been sober since the earth cooled. Fear and denial kept him from going back to AA, until 1985.

 

After a going to meetings every day for nine months, at 5:30, he relapses, and learns the lesson that there is more to Alcoholics Anonymous than going to meetings. When he did finally stop drinking, he had two spiritual awakenings – one when he stopped drinking, and one when he realized he had stopped drinking.

 

Jack finishes his discussion with a run-through of his experience with each of the steps, and how the 10th, 11th, and 12th steps have helped him to gain a working relationship with himself, a higher power, and fellow alcoholics in AA.