There is a place for you in recovery; there is a place for everyone in recovery.
When looking to recovery, T Mychael felt like an outsider, believing the lie that he could not be sober. Today T Mychael Rambo has found his voice as an award-winning actor, vocalist, and faculty member at the U of M.
“When you see a photograph and you’re in the picture, the first thing we tend to do is look for ourselves….When I got into the recovery situation, all of the sudden I looked at the picture and there I was and no one in the picture looked like me.”
“I struggled intensely with being able to see how could I possibly be sober when I didn’t see any other people of color, I didn’t feel like there was a space or a place for me in this environment of recovery. I didn’t know anybody who had ever been sober, so I didn’t know what that meant.”
T Mychael discovered that while he didn’t fit the mold, he was embraced and welcomed. Recovery held a new understanding of acceptance.
“Gradually I began to realize that the fellowship of recovery is one that embraces people with a form of acceptance and understanding.”
He emphasised the importance of acceptance over tolerance on issues concerning other people.
“My grandmother used to say, ‘Boy, you tolerate bad cooking, you tolerate body odor. You don’t tolerate people, you accept them.’
“The acceptance idea was one that gradually enveloped me and I began to realize that I could get to a place of better understanding in recovery. The journey was rocky at first, but somehow or another I managed to keep hold. I was ready for it. I really wanted to no longer live the way I was living after seeing the pain and hurt I was causing the people that I loved and what I was doing to myself.”
George sums it up nicely.
“That’s the first miracle in recovery: ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.‘ That comes from God.”
