Prior to Graduation, residents at Gatehouse Academy are asked to prepare a personal mission statement. Jasmine has elected to share hers with you.

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” (Lord Byron) In sobriety I’ve become an optimist, mostly through enduring pain that I thought would inevitably kill me. I really like this quote; it is the quintessential example of the foundation from which I derive my values in life.

It is utterly vital to me today that I be a woman of integrity with a voice. Without one, I do not have the other. When I am a woman of integrity, I have endless options in my life, and I feel good about myself. When I have a voice, I speak my truth and am in recovery. I believe being open-minded to the world and its people around me is a way for me to be continuously growing in my spirituality. When I came to Gatehouse, my soul was suffocating, closing my heart and mind off to the world and its people. My spirituality is what connects my soul to my heart, and enables my soul to breathe today.

I have come to realize that I value my interests because they are all gifts from God. I have been passionate about the theatre, acting, singing, dancing, performing, music, and writing for quite some time now. I am not only passionate about these God-given talents; I am grateful to have the privilege to know what I want to do with my life. Being sober automatically opens up doors for me which dinking and drugging tore down. I also have always loved volunteer and charity work. I love people and have always worked in fields in which I am working with people, whether it was with children at the Summer Camp, or customers in retail. When I was using, that passion eventually dissipated. A.A. has taught me that service work keeps me sober, and I believe that God brought me back to this passion I have for helping others. I am grateful to be in a position in which I may give to others what was so freely given to me. I feel especially grateful to give back to Gatehouse and all the newcomers here, because I was dying, an “alcoholic of the hopeless variety,” and Gatehouse saved me from a morbid existence. Gatehouse saved my life and taught me a way of life that I only dreamed of when I was using. I love myself today and actually have the capacity to love others. Being sober is my number one priority today, and I never thought I would even want to be a sober woman. It is only through sobriety that my values have been put into perspective and I may live a life free from the bondage of drugs.

Aristotle said, “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”

By: “Jasmine V.”