Today I climbed up the 1048 steps to the top of Koko Head and drank in the views of Waikiki and Hanauma Bay. While there, it occurred to me how amazing things are since 12 steps changed my life.
When I was drinking, my world was very contained. My work was on 106 Street, my home 117 St, same avenue even. I almost never left this eleven block line. Eleven blocks, It’s a big line but a small world. That was my whole world for so long that it had become ingrained in me. This was the whole world, I thought, this eleven block stretch from Boots to Buddys, this two bar gay bar circuit of beer and blow. I’d long since gotten rid of my car; I was never sober enough to drive anyway.
When I got sober in March of 2011, getting a car was one of my first priorities. And it was amazing how that expanded my world. That summer, I spent most of it across the river, exploring the city I had lived in but never truly seen.
And the world just got bigger with the opening of EVO. Yes, there was luck involved, and yes, a great deal of privilege, but also, a great deal of hard work. First, the hard work in becoming sober, and then the hard work of a career I remain passionate about.
But still, when I looked out over the bay from the top of that mountain today, I thought not about the 1048 steps that got me to the top, or the 1048 I would soon have to take to the bottom, but instead, the first 12 steps that made it possible, the first 12 steps that made my world, the whole world.
If you’re reading this and having a hard time taking that first step, let me reassure you that it is SO worth it.