Hi, I¹m Roger.
I¹m twenty years old and I¹m from Michigan and I first started off with Gray Wolf Ranch when I¹d just turned nineteen years old. I was, I was terrified. I didn¹t know what to do. I was getting sent away to this place across, across the United States on the West Coast. I didn¹t
know anyone out here and it was one of the first times I¹d been away from my family and it was rough for me. I came here, I didn¹t know anyone, I didn¹t know anything about being sober, I didn¹t know anything about telling the truth, or helping other people, and I for sure didn¹t know how to help myself. And through the community at Gray Wolf Ranch and through the amazing staff and the treks that they do, I was able to, you know, process relationships with friends, gain trust with myself and with others, and it took me a very long way. I was here for about five months. I was in treatment a total of just shy of six months total and you know, when I first came here, as I said before, I wasn¹t interested in it, I didn¹t want to get sober, and as I came here, I made friends that I¹m still in contact with now, that was two years ago. You know, I¹m doing great today. I have a job, I go to school, I have friends, a girlfriend, and a healthy relationship with my parents, and that¹s really all thanks to Gray Wolf and the experience that I learned here. One thing that was very special for me was being able to go out on these treks. I was never, I¹m a city boy, you know, I was always in the cities, New York, Detroit, Miami, and you know, from a very nice family where we were never, you know, I would never go out into the wilderness. We were never backpacking, hiking. I was always like a two, three shower-a-day type guy, very high maintenance, and I came out here. I was willing to just let go. I surrendered completely to the program. We would go out in the wilderness. It¹d be beautiful, these treks, and they provide everything that you need here to, you know, find yourself, find your soul, and just to be able to live comfortably and love yourself and love other people, which is something I¹d never been able to do before in my life and it, it¹s really changed me and it¹s really turned me around.
Thank you.