Richard Ortega:  

Well... What a long strange trip it is. I can't believe I am sitting here writing about the last 20 years of my life. How does one do that in 20000 characters. Especially when the character count is dwindling before my very eyes! I guess the trick is to be to the point. Point A to point B. Yet I feel I must start at point B and make my way to point A. I am happily married to a beautiful kind, willing and super intelligent woman. Which translated in to having a beautiful, intelligent kind and basically totally awesome son who is today six and a half years old. My beautiful bride is an Instructional Designer. Today I am head counselor at an Intensive Out-Patient Treatment Facility. Which treats chemical dependency. Our life is happy and that happiness is growing on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong life has it's ups and downs but that is life. There is no growth without struggle. Resistance is manditory. This I know for a fact. Its just that today I resist a whole lot less. Three years ago I was a successful Profesional Land Surveyor. I was sole support for my wife and child living in a beautiful home that we own and totally and utterly miserable. So miserable in fact that for the three years leading up to that I had been drinking myself to death. The strange part is this wasn't the first time I had been killing myself with a drug. In my late teens and early twenties I had become addicted to speed when I was working as a Chemical Analyst for a chemical recycling company. Then I hit bottom and things changed. I had a spiritual experience and I stopped using. I was ab...Expand for more