Chicago

CHAPTER FOUR

At seven in the morning Saint found himself in an old therapy room that was altered to assist a class discussions. There were foldable chairs placed in a large circle in which only five chairs were occupied. Saint stood still and tried to look for the main facilitator to let him know who he was and that he was on time for the session.

It didn't take long to spot the tall, light man who was setting up a coffee machine and some coffee cups on the snack table. He was dressed in a light blue button down shirt and beige slacks. Saint took the opportunity to introduce himself since he wasn't bombarded with other people who also wanted to make their presence known.

"Um, hello," Saint grabbed his attention, "my name is Saint Campbell. I was assigned to help facilitate your sessions."

The early-thirties man turned to Saint and reached out his hand for a shake, "my name is Brian Hartley. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too man. So what do I do?"

"Just take a seat anywhere you'd like. Everyone should be here in the next ten minutes so until then just get to know some people, make your face known and let them know that you're here to help." Brian instructed him.

"How exactly do I help them?" Saint asked. He couldn't relate to any of them because he wasn't a drug addict. Everyone in the group so far seemed to be much older than him so he felt out of place trying to play therapist.

"Just be a shoulder to cry on." Brian kept it simple as he tried to perfect the snack table.

Saint picked up the vibe that he was too focused on his snack table to really talk to him. Saint took a deep breath and walked over to a free chair that was away from the other five attendees. All the chairs filled up in a matter of ten minutes and Brian was ready to start the session.

"Good morning everyone," Brian greeted the entire class. Everyone returned the greeting. Some people were more lively than others but Saint was neutral. He didn't necessarily want to be there but he was interested in seeing how the session would turn out.

"My name is Brian Hartley and I will be your facilitator for the next couple months. Now you may be asking yourself, what can this man possibly do for me? Can he even relate to me? To answer your question, yes I can relate to you. Growing up I was a very lost person. I spent so much time trying to be cool and trying to fit in that I lost myself. When I graduated high school and entered my first year of college, I started to get wrapped up in the excitement of the college experience. It was all about freedom, sex and drugs. At the time the most frequent thing I did was drugs. I was so into it that my grades started to drop and I started belittling my responsibilities. I spent a lot of my money on narcotics and I went completely broke. Then I got so desperate I started tapping into credit cards and college funds. I then dropped out of college because I started thinking how it wasn't worth it. My mindset was overwhelmed with negativity and it got to the point where I even wanted to kill myself because my entire life was going downhill,"

"How did you overcome it?" One member asked the question that everyone else was thinking.

Brian replied, "I had an old college professor who recommended rehab to me and I accepted his offer. At first I was reluctant but after weighting all my options that seemed like the best one. It took a lot of work and a lot of withdrawals but at the end of the day I got better. I learned how to control myself and I learned that drugs can't do anything for me besides destroy me. There are a lot of people out there who don't have the means or resources to get better physically, mentally and emotionally. It is for that reason that I decided to help people with similar situations and now I'm here."