Graham Correia

Graham's Story

Hi there, my name is Graham Correia. Im 42 years old, and have been a drug addict and an alcoholic for 25 years. I never owned it. I never pointed fingers at myself. I alienated everyone around me, mostly those who are closest to me. And and lost a lot of people in my life that I never wanted to lose. On the flip side of that, the unconditional support of people around me in this recovery process has been amazing. I finally surrendered to this Disease. I wasn’t sure what direction I was going to go in but I knew I was going to follow my heart and and the direction of the people who were there for me even after they found out about The things that I’ve done to hurt people, especially loved ones. It gave me hope. So I had a choice to make. I could go to a treatment center. I could try aa meetings. I could try therapy. I decided to take a different route. And put them all together in a place that I had never been. I packed a bag. A small double bag With one pair of old running shoes And had just enough money on a jet blue credit to get on a plane from boston to Denver. I had no idea what I was doing but I did know that I needed to be in a place that spoke to me. And the rocky mountains being what they are, did just that. I stepped off the plane and I started to run. As I was running in those mountains I started to really take a deep hard look at myself. Who I was and who I wasn’t. I started to take accountability for who I am not, and who I want to be. That was a very difficult thing for me to do as I had never done that before in my life. I stopped pointing fingers. I started understanding the things inside of me that have been growing worse and worse as I ignored them more and more. I started understanding that I am insecure , and have and have self esteem issues stemming from a long time ago. I began to go to AA again. I started meditating in the mountains and in the morning when I woke up. I stayed with my childhood friend who is sober and a runner himself and he took me in with no question. I owe this man my life. I started to look into therapy and dive into what I needed to do to take that stuff out of me that I don’t like and bury it. And bury it I did. 10000′ up outside of Colorado Springs colorado. I started to grow in a way that I had never felt before. and an idea came into my head. Running has always been a spiritual thing for me and and it became extremely spiritual where I was able to discover a higher power in the mountains. I thought about Chris Herren and his story. It started to give me strength that I didn’t think that I had anymore. My running soon turned into 20 miles A-day up in the mountains. And it became easy. there was a flow to it. So I decided to come up with a plan where I could help people take their 1st steps on their journeys and hopefully get to where they recognize the things that they don’t like about themselves and the things that they do like about themselves and keep the good and change the bad. So on January 1st I will be starting from Denver, Colorado . I will be running 40 miles per day for the Herren project. Back to Massachusetts where my home is and my family is. It should take me about 49 days. This os my recovery road. This is where I will be able to also discover what it means to get from the hell i was once in, to The person That I saw myself being when I was 5 years old looking forward. Please, any donations or support for this project would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this period I have a long road ahead of me but I’d like to be a part of something bigger than just myself. And this is a good step in the right direction. God-bless you all

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