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James's Story |
When you first meet James, it’s hard not to notice his smile. It’s big and bright and pretty contagious. Within seconds of being around him, it’s impossible not to find yourself smiling, too. But James wasn’t always so easygoing.
He grew up in North Carolina, raised by a single mother who had a hard time making ends meet. “I was definitely one of the poorest kids in town,” James says. “We didn’t even have any running water until I was 15 and we moved into my grandma’s house when she died.” A self-described, “shy kid,” James said he always felt “less than” the other kids around. He attributes his experimentation with alcohol and marijuana to that feeling. “When I was drinking, I felt equal,” James said. “So I kept on.”
At age 15, his dad’s social security back payments started coming in, and James’s world opened up. For the first time in his life, he had money to spend, and he spent it all – on clothes, on his friends, and on crack cocaine – a new habit. He also bought a car – which he wrecked under the influence. “I should have died in that accident,” James says, and he’s got the scars across his face to prove it.
Then at 21, James and his friends were out drinking and high on cocaine when they found themselves low on cash and decided to rob a convenience store at gunpoint. “We were high,” James says. “Doing things we wouldn’t and shouldn’t do and I take full responsibility for it, because a man’s got to take responsibility.” He spent 7.5 years in prison.
James had some ups and downs over the following years, including a stint as an amateur boxer and a few failed attempts at getting sober. But then he started making important changes in his recovery and his life – he started getting connected and maintaining connections, and he’s been sober for more than 3 years now.
One thing James holds dear is his role as peer counselor in Walden House’s PROSPER program – a supportive recovery program in Los Angeles. “I didn’t get clean at Walden House,” James says. “But I stay clean at Walden House.” He continues, “My participation in PROSPER has revealed so much about me and my issues. I’ve learned that I don’t have to have everything ‘my way.’ I’ve learned to come up out of myself and be assertive, but I’ve also learned that it’s okay to play it safe. The rules don’t bother you when you’re not being bad.”
Sal Wilson, Director of PROSPER says this, “One thing I love about James is his eagerness for everything.” That’s evident to all who meet him. In fact, he recently represented PROSPER as a peer leader in a recovery conference in Washington, DC. “Imagine that,” James says. “Once upon a time people didn’t want me in their house. Now I get to go represent!”
When he’s not volunteering at PROSPER or working at his job as a security lead at the Salvation Army, James pursues his other love: stand-up comedy. “I’m still young,” he says. “I don’t want a whole lot. I just want to make people laugh.”