An SRA graduate's speech

There’s something to be said about a place in which one can make as many mistakes as possible and always expect a second chance. That this place, though thousands of miles away, can feel as much like a home as home did. Many people will never know a place like this. Somewhere they can let loose and just be—one hundred percent of the time. I’m lucky enough to have stumbled into such a place.

Today, I walk back out.

I’ve come to accept a fact of life that really sucks until you put it into perspective. That is, I will never be cured of the human condition. Yeah, I get irritable. I cry a lot. I’ve tried striving for perfection and landed flat on my face. Only when I released my fears of making mistakes and embraced my utter humanness did things start working in my life.

I would never have gotten here were I still at home. I would never have learned that I was wrong about everything I thought I knew. And I didn’t want to change. But looking back, I often wonder how anyone could choose a life of drugs and self-destruction over even a single moment like this. We all have though, in our own way. Each one of us has seen the side of life we wished would just disappear. I tried to ignore it, and it got me here.

Here.

Today, I leave SRA, not a new person, but as myself again. I leave the resilient, precious human being I entered this world as. But because I know now that I am not my past, I leave today stronger, wiser, and more “me” than I’ve ever been.

Today is not the end. I have reached the day on which I choose whether to implement my new skills and continue on this path of excellence or throw it all away.

To me there is no choice.

Without the help of Spring Ridge and the undying support and courage of my family, I would not be standing here today. I’m taking all of this, all of you, home with me. Because I was given a second chance.

I’m doing it right this time.