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Staying the course until your comfort zone comes to you
The Christmas season of 2017 was a blurry time for me because so much turmoil preceded the holidays. As I stared out a window of my commuter train heading into downtown Chicago, I noticed the city’s impressive skyline coming into view. Just nine months earlier I was drowning in panic, staring out at the parking lot of my apartment complex in West Michigan, looking for approaching headlights, and wondering if I would be able to pull off my move to Chicago before a sheriff’s deputy showed up at my door and tossed me onto the street. I had been evicted weeks earlier for falling too far behind on rent and was essentially fleeing to Chicago after accepting a sketchy job out of desperation. Once the train reached the station downtown, I would be catching an Uber to the Chinese consulate to apply for a visa. After working 6 months at the sketchy job, I found a decent job because of timing, luck, years of hard work, and networking. During my train commute that early December morning I was practicing lines mentally; excuses I would give to my new employers in Beijing on why I didn’t drink alcohol. I was privately battling alcohol addiction and struggled to maintain any significant period of sobriety, but I had stopped right after Thanksgiving weekend to prepare for this trip.
I made it through Christmas and New Year’s Eve without drinking and my…
