A great guy with a great story

~ Jason Schwartz

johnw

From MLive:

The last time John Worthy attended a graduation ceremony with his daughter in 2007, he was in a much different place than he’ll be when the two reunite as he receives his master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan.

Mired in a world revolved around drugs and alcohol and dealing with the aftermath of his third drug-related criminal charge, Worthy recalls a phone conversation with Sasha, who had moved to Atlanta with her mother – a watershed moment that convinced him to get clean.

“One day during (my daughter Sasha’s) senior year she called and asked if I was going to be able to attend her graduation,” said Worthy, who was 38 at the time. “I found that to be troubling that she asked me. The more I thought about it, I couldn’t determine if she asked me because she was afraid that I wasn’t (going) or afraid that I was. I really began to think about her and what impact all of this stuff had on her.”

Moments like that phone conversation are how Worthy measures his progress in recovery from drugs and alcohol in the years that followed as “symbols of change.”

Read the rest here.

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.

One thought on “A great guy with a great story”

  1. Love this story of success in recovery and higher education. Too many people give up on their goals and that does not have to be John or anybody’s story anymore — big props to John and Michigan’s CRP
    Cheers from the Penn State Collegiate Recovery Community

    Like

Comments are closed.