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 My name is Lee. I'm an alcoholic. Good to be here tonight. Thank you, Karen, for asking

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 me. Very much appreciated. Thanks for having me. Quality of life. Wow. I knew you'd do

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 that. You know, I think I spoke this meeting about five years ago when it was over another

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 location. Remember that chant that you guys do? I don't remember that. So maybe it was

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 me, maybe it wasn't. Um, to qualify, I have been sober. I took a cake on September 6th

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 for 25 years. That includes weekends, nights, you know, etc. No drugs either. And I still

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 consider myself a newcomer in this thing. And thanks, Abraham, for that share. That

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 was brought me back, brought back some memories to me when I was newer. You know, I really

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 struggled with this thing, you know, and welcome to the newcomers. You know, my first sponsor

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 told me it's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be like a roller coaster at the beginning,

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 but eventually it's going to level out. Life is going to get better. Now I was a hard case,

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 so I fired that sponsor in about a week because I didn't listen very well. So I'm one of those

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 guys who didn't get this right away. It took me a while, but I wish I had this crystal

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 ball to show you what life was like when I was drinking and what it's like now. You know,

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 I really hope I can describe it to you guys because it's so different. I never expected

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 to have the life that I have today. Never did. You know, I grew up middle class, nothing

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 special about my family. We grew up in Woodland Hills. I have a brother and a sister. Never

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 saw my parents ever pick up a drink. Never saw them pick up a cigarette. Went to private

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 schools. Who would have thought? You know, who would have thought? You know, my sister

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 is a raging alcoholic. She beat me to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous by several

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 years. And then I found these rooms. You know, I went to college, University of California

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 at San Diego, and I had some roommates and those roommates introduced me to drugs. You

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 know, and so it was a cool thing to do, you know, to be a college crowd, you know, take

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 a couple of hits on this, take a couple of hits on that. You know, I remember one of

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 my first drinking experiences. You mentioned one of your first. I remember one of my first.

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 It was, we were off campus. We had an apartment and I had three roommates and we're just kind

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 of shooting it around. We're getting high and all that stuff, you know, and a couple

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 of girls are around. I wanted to act more than I was, you know, and so I told my roommates,

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 you can mix anything in that kitchen, any alcohol, anything with it, and I'll drink

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 it and it won't affect me because I'm a big time drinker. Look at me, you know, and so

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 they proceeded to take me up on it, you know, and so they were throwing vodka, gin, bourbon,

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 milk. I think peanut butter was thrown in there. God knows what was thrown in there.

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 It was a nasty drink. I mean, just nasty. But you know, if you're an alcoholic like

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 me, you know, you got to drink it, right? You got to drink it, no matter how bad it

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 tastes. And so I drank the whole thing and I said, excuse me. I went outside to get some

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 fresh air, came back inside and everybody was laughing. I'm like, what's the joke? And

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 they said, don't you know? You went outside, you passed out for two and a half hours and

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 you came back inside. I'm like, what are you talking about? So I'm an alcoholic that passes

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 out. I like to overdo things, but I didn't really reach my height of alcoholism for many

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 years after that. I just did a lot of drugs, a lot of drugs, and somehow I made it through

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 college and somehow, you know, because of my education, I don't know why, but I paid

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 attention, I guess, in school. And I went to, as I mentioned, private schools. I went

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 to UC San Diego, so I had this, I was a great interviewer, you know, I could put on a suit,

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 get in front of you, say the right things, you know, and more times than not, you'd give

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 me an opportunity, you know? So in my mind, I guess I'm thinking the interview, once I

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 get it, it's over because then I just wouldn't report to work, right? And so my wife and

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 I, we weren't married at that time, but she, she loves to talk about this. I must have

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 gone through 20 jobs in three, four years. Mink is really good at getting the job, you

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 know, just not good at the execution of that. It's like when I first got to AA, you know,

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 how people hand you phone numbers and such, I'd have all these slips, pieces of paper,

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 guys that wanted to help me with my phone numbers, with their phone numbers, et cetera.

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 Really good at getting the phone numbers, just not good at the execution, right? Because

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 those phone numbers eventually would go in the drawer and I would have, God, I don't

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 know how many. And my wife, the great Al-Anon she is, you know, at that time she was starting

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 to get her recovery, but she would, when she would get nervous about, you know, my drinking

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 on those pieces of paper would make them make the way out of the drawer and go like onto

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 a counter and then they'd get on my desk somehow, you know? So she was trying to urge me, you

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 know, and the great program of Al-Anon taught her eventually to detach that this guy's going

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 to have to find his own way, you know, no matter how much she wants. You know, the people

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 that are closest to us, right, pay the biggest price. They really do, you know, because they

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 love us so much and they want to do whatever they can. And so like my wife, you know, she

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 thought she wasn't pretty enough because I wouldn't stop drinking. I didn't love her

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 enough because I wouldn't stop drinking, you know, and the great program of Al-Anon taught

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 her had nothing to do with that. I had this disease and until I found recovery, that disease

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 took over my life. So, you know, so I finally dumped the drug thing. My mom actually was

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 in a head nurse and she was starting a program called Narcotics Anonymous. And so I started

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 going. I went to five, six, seven meetings. I don't know, a handful of meetings. I got

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 the message, stopped doing the drugs and thought I was recovered. You know, I didn't hear about

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 you might substitute one for another. You got to keep going. You're never fully recovered.

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 Didn't hear those messages. All I heard, hey, I'm not doing it anymore. I don't need you

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 because it's still all about me. Right. I don't need you. So I kept my interview process

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 going and found a good job. And I found out that since I wasn't doing the drugs and I

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 wasn't lazy and paranoid, the things that come around that world, I was able to start

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 working and start doing what I was being paid to do as a good employee. And I started becoming

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 fairly successful doing it. But I also found that drinking with the team after work was

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 very enjoyable. And so I started drinking, you know, and eventually started substituting

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 the drugs with the alcohol and it was getting worse and worse and worse. I remember Woodley

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 Park, Woodman Park, the park off of Van Nuys Boulevard. There's a big park there like Riverside

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 and Van Nuys Boulevard. I was out drinking with my team at a bar, of course, and one

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 of my female colleagues proceeded to tell me, just hang on here, that I was overweight.

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 Now we're very, I don't know if you know this about, but we're very sensitive about things.

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 How dare you call me over even though I was really overweight at the time. How dare you

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 call me overweight? So I proceeded to tell her that she wasn't, I'm going to try to put

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 it in the nicest terms possible. She wasn't well endowed. She didn't, she wasn't very

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 happy about that. And so this ended up about three hours later, about one o'clock in the

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 morning I believe, into a 100 yard dash in the park to see who was more physically in

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 shape for all this drinking. We do crazy things when we drink, right? And they're funny today.

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 They're not funny when they happen. So we, there were people around us and I remember

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 a guy that I was really close to said, I was wearing a suit by the way, you know, that

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 I was just came from work to the bar and started drinking. You better stretch, novel idea.

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 Better stop smoking. And I proceeded to tell him I can be here no matter what, don't worry

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 about it. And I remember it was also pretty cold at night. And so went into this hundred

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 yard dash. I did take the jacket off, but I was wearing the tie still and I was wearing

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 the dress shoes and all that. And about 30 yards into that race, I felt this immense

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 pain in my leg, in my foot. And I went crashing down and it turned out I ruptured my Achilles.

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 Now, now I know it's, but this is all it took to get me here, right? So there's a happy

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 ending to all this. I want everybody to know, cause this is important to me. We're still

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 very sensitive even though we're in recovery, right? I was winning that race at the 30 yard

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 mile. I had her, I just had to stay on my feet. Oh man, the things that happened to

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 us, you know, and, um, you know, I got married and the drinking, um, was getting worse and

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 worse. And finally, you know, my wife kicked me out, you know, I was living it actually

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 in her condominium at the time it was hers. And she just walked in one day and said, I

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 need you to be gone, you know? And so, um, and so I left, you know, um, and I started

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 doing better and I started like climbing the food chain at the business I was in and good

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 things were happening and she had heard about it and it was her birthday. And so, so why

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 don't we just go out for your birthday, sexy happy birthday. And we got together again

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 and we've been together ever since, uh, 33 years or so. Um, but you know, we're, we're

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 sensitive. We're also pretty smart because I thought that came in my mind was I don't

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 want to go back to her place where she can kick me out again like that because it's her

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 place. She owns it. So I had a proposition for her. Let me buy into it. Let me buy 50%

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 into it. So I own half of it, figuring it, make it harder for her to kick me up. Cause

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 I wasn't done with drinking. I wasn't done. And she agreed to it. So I owned half of it.

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 And so my drinking, you know, just spiraled out of control. And, and, and I remember getting

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 to my first meeting of alcohol synonymous. So my sister had gotten there years before

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 me. She was a violent, violent alcoholic, a lot of problems with the police. And so

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 we draw these lines, you know, my line was not really a violent alcoholic. I drink in

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 excess. I'll admit that, but I'm not violent. I don't get in trouble with the police. There

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 for, I can't really be an alcoholic. Cause the alcoholics that's what happens to them

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 or they're unemployed and they're on the street. These stereotypes that we have, you know,

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 sometimes as we grow up of what a real alcoholic is, you know, since I didn't have drinking

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 in the family, I had a grandmother, by the way, it was a terrible alcoholic. I didn't

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 know at the time, but I didn't know these things, you know, so, um, eventually, uh,

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 went out, um, got arrested. I got a DUI about, uh, show where I live. There's a private gate

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 in these houses and all I go to the private gate, right. The private gate, I got a DUI,

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 you know, some guy, um, I don't know if he caused the accident because he tried to extort

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 money from me or what it doesn't really matter. Point is I got a DUI, went to jail. I got

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 out on my own connoisseurs in the morning and, uh, my sister and her boyfriend showed

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 up, said, you need to go to alcohol synonymous. So I went to my first meeting, they ate the

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 valley club, uh, not where it's at now when it was, um, Tampa. Thanks. That's like for

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 you. Anyway, it was sitting in that room and I remember looking around the room and Sam

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 stuff. I'm not like these guys and girls like this, you know, I just, I'm a smart guy. I

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 just got to figure it out. You know, there has to be some formula here where I can drink,

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 you know, and work and still have my marriage intact. But there has to be this formula and

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 I'm going to be the guy that figures it out, you know, and I tried to figure it out for

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 the first two years. And boy, I got to tell you, that was a miserable two years because

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 I don't know if you guys have heard, I heard that a rex you're drinking boy wreck my drinking.

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 I was a happy go lucky, you know, I'm in the bars, I'm in the clubs type of guy. Now I'm

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 sitting and just crying in my drinks for whatever the reasons are. I'm a sad alcoholic, you

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 know, and I can't seem to get this thing. And people that, um, I've been going to meetings

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 with, you know, I always went to meetings late, by the way, I don't know that trick,

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 you know, go a little bit late. You don't have to associate too much with the people

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 in that meeting. You leave a little early, you know, you kind of cut it loose a little

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 bit and all instead of getting right in the midst of it. You know, that was my, one of

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 my favorite tricks. So, you know, I, you know, I am going to meetings with these guys and

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 all, but they're, they're getting time and I'm not, I'm still getting 30, 60 days. We

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 used to have a meeting. I don't know if they still do a plat big meeting on Friday night

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 at a church. I used to hate that meeting. And the reason I hated it was because it was

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 a 60 day routine. If you're newer than 60 days, you got to stand up. And there's at

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 that time there were a couple of hundred people there, right? I was standing up like it seemed

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 like every fricking week, you know, cause I couldn't get 60 days, get 30, I get 45 and

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 I'm back to being a newcomer. I get 30, just humbling, very humbling, very demoralizing.

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 And I just thought, you know, that fun has gone in life. I don't know if newcomers, all

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 newcomers think that I sit in meetings and I hear guys that come in and say, Hey, when

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 I went to my first eight meetings, I felt at home. I heard the message. I felt like

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 one of them. I didn't feel that at all. I felt just the opposite, just the opposite.

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 And so the message here more than anything is hope. Cause I really believe if I can get

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 this thing, anybody can, I mean, seriously, anybody can. So, you know, I'm going around

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 and about and then I had the spiritual awakening as I call it. I had just gone to a Friday

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 night meeting at the Friday night meeting. I had no plan. I went to a liquor store after

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 the meeting, got a bottle of vodka, got drunk off my ass, was thinking about doing a geographic.

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 I won't get into too many details there. It wasn't pretty. And the one thing I did right

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 was I had a donut commitment at the Valley Club and I had that donut commitment. They

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 extended it cause I was special and figured I needed it. I had that donut commitment for

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 over a year. And that, cause I'm in the business world. So when you make, you know, when you

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 make a commitment like that, you, you really have to stand up to it. Cause that's how I

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 was successful in business. So, so no matter what, I kept making that donut commitment

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 to the point where the old timers would seek me out and say, okay, next Saturday morning,

168
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 cause it was a Saturday morning, early meeting. This is what I want. This is my donut order.

169
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 So I have these paper bags of donuts for the old timers that would pass out with their

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 donuts. And then it was like four or five dozen cause it's a huge meeting. Huge. I missed

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 it. I missed it. Friday night, got drunk, drank all hours in the morning, missed it.

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 I said, fuck it. I'm sorry. You guys have a law here. I rule here. I think I have to

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 put some money in something. So let me know what that penalty is. Um, screw it. Um, and,

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 uh, and two members, um, that go to that meeting knew I was in trouble and they came to my

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 house and they sat with me the entire weekend, you know? And right then and there I said

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 to myself, you're either in this thing cause it's driving you crazy. You're just a miserable

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 SOB. You're either in it or you're out. That's it. You can't tread this line anymore. It's

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 not working for two years. It hasn't worked at all. And so I decided one more time to

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 come back to AA, but to do the suggestions and to do it the way that people have been

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 telling me to do it. Um, but I haven't done it. I'm far from perfect. I didn't do my steps

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 for five years. Yeah, I know. Five years. I wouldn't recommend that to anybody, but

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 that is my story. You know, because I'm obstinate, I'm stubborn. I still think I know the right

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 way to do it. Right. And when I finally got that sponsor that said, if I'm going to sponsor

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 you doing your steps and you're starting your steps right now, you know, I needed that type

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 of guidance. What a release, what freedom, you know? Um, but I went back to AA. I found

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 what I consider the best offense to this group by the way. Right. But I found, I think the

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 best home group around. Right. It's I know, but you know, if you don't feel that way about

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 your meeting, then it might not be the right meeting for it. I feel that way about my need.

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 Right. It's a men's stag meeting every Tuesday and Thursday at St. Mark's church. I think

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 you had a speaker of Brett who was here several weeks ago. I saw Brett when he first came

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 in the rooms, et cetera. You're a great guy. He's moving out of the area, unfortunately.

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 But um, I found this group and I started doing what they told me to do. You know, um, they,

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 they knew I was off since they kind of went, they tread lightly around me, but I needed

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 the men to really call me on my stuff, you know? And, um, and I haven't had a drink since.

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 I mean, that's a miracle, right? I mean, wow. You know, we say it's simple and everything's

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 out front of you. It's big book, you know, steps, you know, working with others and we

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 all talk about it. Um, but it's not easy because as an alcoholic, I don't want to be told what

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 to do. And even as a recovering alcoholic, I've gotten better over the years. I don't

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 know if that's age or being in the program of AA for a while. I've gotten a lot better

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 about being told what to do, but, uh, if my wife was here, she would maybe not be agreeing

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 with that. I'm not sure. Um, but you know, I remember when I was newer and I would go

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 to meetings and it'd be somebody up at the podium, you know, she had a podium here, um,

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 up at the podium saying, it's all in the big book. You've got to read the big book cover

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 to cover, know it left and right. And I know people that say it's all in the steps. I worked

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 those steps, you know, people say it's working with others, you know, um, getting that spiritual

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 contact and getting your higher power and all that. Well, for me, at least I didn't

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 talk in terms of me. Um, it was a combination of those things. I had to find the right combination

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 for me for somebody else. It might be more meetings, somebody else. It might be they

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 get on their knees five times a day. You know, you have to find the right combination. I

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 had to find the right combination for me that allowed me to go out there in this world and

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 be able to be fairly normal. But the key is not being, not having to pick up a drink.

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 That's the key. No matter how, you know, and we all go through it. Life's good. Life's

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 not so good. Life's happy. Life's sad. Oh gosh, I just got laid off. Whatever the case

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 may be, whatever happens to us, if you're an alcoholic like me, one day I cannot afford

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 to do is to pick up that drink because I, uh, I was a scout for a long time and I came

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 back to meetings, a lot of arrows in me, you know, um, and I tried every which way, you

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 know, to try to defeat this on my own. And the only thing I found that works is this.

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 So if you're new or you go out and scout, you know, and try it, but I'm telling you,

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 it's this, this works. We were reading a vision for you. I, my Thursday night is a big book

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 study and we were doing a vision for you. And I love just reading about the history,

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 how it started word of mouth and social media and I don't want the tools we have today.

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 Word of mouth. And the reason it grew initially was success because people were able to stay

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 sober when nothing else worked. And that's the key. This is it. I went through a lot

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 of sponsors by the way, last house on the block, you know, last house on the block for

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 me at least, you know, and so my life, I have about 10 minutes I think. Let's talk about,

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 let's talk about my life, you know, how it's changed, you know? It's a movie with Jack

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 Nicholson. He just talks about trying to be a better version of himself. You know, how

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 many times I look at the mirror on the outside. Yeah. You can put on a suit, you can put on

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 a tie and somebody doesn't know you. They look at it and say, okay, you guys be doing

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 pretty well. On the inside. I was miserable. You know, I would look in a mirror and I did

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 not like what I saw because I remember I just couldn't do anything without drinking, you

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 know, and all the commitments I made and promises talks about in the big book. And I made these

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 promises. My wife and I, we do a lot of couples, um, shares on, she's been in Al-Anon. She's

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 a great Al-Anon story by far given my recovery. You know, so my Al-Anon wife came to me one

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 night when I was still drinking and said, I'm going to go to Al-Anon. And I said, I

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 forbid you. I have never forbid my wife to do anything. I've been the biggest champion,

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 go out, you know, and conquer whatever you need to conquer, you know, do whatever you

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 need to do. You know, I support everything, but this case I forbid you. So my wife, the

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 great Al-Anon she is, she just went, you know, and did it, uh, you know, on the slide, you

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 know, she did it for a year or something on the slide, you know, and I had no idea cause

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 she'd go traveling in her business. And when she was out of town, she'd go to Al-Anon meetings.

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 I had no idea, you know, and I was so busy in my disease. I didn't notice that maybe

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 she was detaching a little bit more, you know, not getting so involved. You know, I don't

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 know, you know, I remember when, uh, one week when she came home, I had a one week and gone

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 crazy, spent a lot of money in bars, buying people drinks. Cause that's how I feel important.

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 You know, back then I had no other reason to feel important, you know? And so I remember

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 coming home, I'm like, I'm in a lot of trouble here because we got some credit card bills

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 coming in and I'll have to be able to explain these ones away, you know? And so, you know,

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 we're great, you know, on our strategies. And so I said, honey, got some good news and

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 some bad news. What do you want first? Like, well, give me the good news, Mike. This weekend,

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 when you were gone, I finally figured out I am an alcoholic. And so she's actually crying

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 tears of joy, you know, cause our loved ones, she wants what's best for me. What's the bad

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 news? Well, we might have some credit card bills coming in that might be a little extensive,

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 but we'll figure out how to get and pay those. Okay. So, um, yeah, so, you know, we're, we're

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 great at stuff like that, but you know, life has really changed. So I have a relationship

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 with my wife today. That's built on trust. You know, it was, there wasn't a lot of trust

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 at the beginning. So by the way, if you had asked me at the beginning of this journey,

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 Lee, what are your priorities? This is what I would tell. And this is what I did tell

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 people job number one, because my job, I got to be able to, you know, support my family.

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 Number two, you know, is my health. And maybe number three is sobriety. Maybe, maybe even

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 after I started getting some time, that was still my answer in my heart case, you know,

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 and at some point in time, and I don't know when, I don't know who it was like in the

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 first two years, three years for some, at some point in time, that whole thing flipped,

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 you know, it just flipped where now if you ask me sobriety is my number one priority,

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 number one, you know, you know, family number two, you know, and I can't really talk about

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 job much anymore, but when I I'm retired, but when I was working job would be number

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 three because for me, I could always get a job somewhere, you know, but without my sobriety,

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 I have nothing took me a long time to figure that out. You know, one of the neat things

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 about getting some sobriety for me is because of my work and my role, I, I didn't have to

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 keep quiet about it. And so over the many years, a lot of men and some women have come

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 to me to talk to me about alcoholism. And hopefully I've been able to help, you know,

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 because it's always been known, you know, I'm a recovering alcoholic. I never really

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 wanted to hide that, you know, I came out very quickly, you know, with that, because

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 I wanted to be accountable, you know, and I figured the days of disappearing and all

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 that needs to go by the wayside. So very vocal, you know, to, you know, people to work for

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 me, colleagues, that I'm recovering alcoholic as a result, you know, men have come up to

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 me, you know, and I've tried to help them, you know, and, and it's not an excuse either,

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 you know, I've had to be very tough on people who worked for me at times when they haven't

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 gotten this thing, because it's not an excuse to miss work. It's not an excuse to not perform

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 and things like that, you know, and it's got, sometimes you have to be tough. So, so my

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 marriage is built on trust and it wasn't that way at the beginning. My wife called me, "Where

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 are you?" "Well, I'm at a meeting." "Really?" You know, and then once one week and she called

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 me, she's out of town, she called me, like, "I just had this dream that you're out drinking.

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 What's going on? You don't sound good." You know, that type of thing. So I, about two

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 years into this, I said, "I'll put this to bed." "I deserve it." You know, and listen,

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 we make our bed. You know, how many times did I tell her I had been drinking, you know,

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 and I have been drinking, you know, and so you make your bed, you know, so I said, "I'm

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 going to put this to rest." "I'll do this one time." So this is the time you just tell

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 me, you got one card on this, I'll go to a lab and get tested. Easy deal, you know, and

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 she said, "I want you to get tested." I said, "One time." So I went and got tested and of

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 course I was clean and she didn't trust me like the very next day, you know, it still

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 took some time for her to really trust me, you know, but she does today, you know, she

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 does today. I've had family members in the program of AA, you know, my sister and I,

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 so this is a good story, my sister, and this is, this is a great example of the program

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 of AA bringing family together. So when my sister was out drinking, well, it was miserable,

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 she had two kids and I found out she was driving with those two kids in her car while drinking.

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 Now I'm a drinker too, you know, but to me, again, I haven't, at that point I didn't consider

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 myself an alcoholic, I was the guy that just drank. So I went through child protection

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 services and I got custody of those two kids, you know, she hated me, she hated me. My father

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 disowned me, came to my house one day and said, "You're not my son, you know, the kids

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 belong with the mother, do what you got to do." You know, so I had those kids for two

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 years and actually my drinking slowed down a little bit because I was very conscious

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 about, "You're not going to drink around those kids." So when I was able to, you know, when

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 my wife watched the kids or one of my sons watched the kids, I'd go out and drink and

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 I'll find a, "Hey, I'm not going to be around them," but I was still drinking. After two

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 years, she came to the rooms of AA, she got sobriety, she worked the system like she should,

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 and I was able to happily give those two kids back to her. Today, my sister and I are very

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 close and how many times over the years has she thanked me for what I did? Unfortunately,

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 my father had a heart attack and passed away. We never really closed that bomb, you know,

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 was just unfortunate. I remember when my father passed away, I went to his wake drunk, went

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 to his funeral drunk, it was another service, I'd have been drunk. I remember when my mom

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 passed away and I was in the program with AA, she had cancer, it took two years for

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 her to pass. I was the sibling that was in the area. I remember going to her chemo meetings,

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 her doctor meetings, holding her hand for two years, being able to say everything I

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 needed to say to her and to say my goodbyes. That's the joy of Alcoholics Anonymous, because

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 without Alcoholics Anonymous, that never would have happened. So there are so many rewards

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 here and the big book spells out rewards, but there are so many rewards as a direct

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 result of us getting sober. My life today is, you know, it's not, it's not glamorous.

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 You may say it's not very exciting, you know, but I tell you it's fulfilling. You know,

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 I have a wife, great relationship with her. As I mentioned, very trusting. I'm retired.

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 I hang out with some guys, you know, I go to meetings, you know, I play a lot of golf,

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 you know, et cetera. It's a great life. It's a life that I never thought through the chaos

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 of my drinking that I could ever have, you know, cause when you brought me in, when I

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 was drinking, it was a tornado, just a tornado. You know, we all have our drunkalocks. So,

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 you know, I owe everything to the program of AA. I owe everything to the guys in my

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 home group. These guys would do anything for me. Just like I would do anything for them.

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 And we have over the years, you know, um, this program has made me, you know, a better

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 when I was working a better colleague, a better boss, you know, a much better boss, a better

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 husband, better friend, just a better member of society. And let me just say, before we

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 end this again, I'll go back to, I am so far from being perfect. I have my bad days and

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 my good days. I have my days. I go off, you know, but the difference is most of the time

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 I catch myself and most of the time I can become a better person. A lot of times I can

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 apologize for my actions. This is a guy that when he goes to the store and sees a person

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 struggling, putting groceries in a car, goes and asks if you'd be assistance. There's a

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 guy on a plane when an older lady has to try to get her luggage up and nobody's helping

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 here. It was out of his way saying, ma'am, do you need some help? That's what the program

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 of AA does for us. You know, I love it. I really, again, thank you so much for letting

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 me share. It's such a great deal. Again, for newcomers, I wish you had this crystal ball.

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 You could just like have this glimpse, but this journey is about you, right? You're going

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 to have to find out for yourselves what this journey is about. I tell you, my experience

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 says firms of AA, anything is possible. Anything. Thanks for letting me share.