Yesterday she celebrated her one month of sobriety and today she celebrates her birthday.  My friend has always thrived in a world separate from mine that I couldn’t understand.  She was a person who shirked responsibility and pursued moments that would bring temporary satisfaction.  It always seemed like she was hurting herself, whether that was her struggle with anorexia or her battle with drug addiction.  I sat face to face with the young woman who had been absent from my life for a whole year.

She speaks in a British-American hybrid accent.  The porch light accentuates her cheekbones and her smile excites me.  Her story began with giving up her drug addiction, finally saying she had had enough.  She gave up pursuing the high to better her life and become sober.  My friend has always been an enigma to me, even though i consider us close.  There’s this apprehension that sets in whenever I see her, this time my apprehension was gone rather quickly.  This was the most transparent and honest form of her that I had ever seen.  She was finally alive, and I felt relieved to see her genuinely smile and accept her shortcomings.

“Someones calling me,” she picked up her phone and put it on speaker.  Her friend from treatment had relapsed and needed someone to be there for her. “Lets do our gratefuls,” this was an exercise that my friend had done in treatment,  it was where you would name three things that you were grateful for.  As they both shared, I was shocked at how simple the things they were grateful for were.

Emily has transformed.