***The following is an op-ed piece written by one of our dedicated Client Support Specialists Gabe Iverson. Gabe's dedication to his recovery and the quality of care he provides to the individuals he manages at Oregon Trail Recovery makes him not only a valuable asset to the team here at OTR but also allows him to live a life centered around service to others and his own recovery.*** When I first got into recovery, I was trying to find a way out of the pain and suffering that I knew as everyday life. I met other people who had were recovering from active addiction and this gave me some hope. My focus in early recovery was just resisting this old lifestyle that I knew couldn’t fulfill me, yet I was still wanting to go back to it because it was a life that I knew how to navigate. A major shift happened for me when I started to see recovery as a way to build a life that I no longer wanted to escape from. One where drugs and alcohol no longer fit into the picture, so that instead of resisting them, I was just able to choose my new life over my old life of active use. A huge part of what made this possible was the human connection, something I didn’t realize I was so deprived of until I had people in my life who cared about me again. I met a significant number of these people in the rooms of twelve step groups. I thought that sobriety was going to be some boring life and I’m so glad that I was wrong about that. I have more fun with the people I’ve met in recovery than I ever did in my old life. Through getting involved in these fellowships, setting goals for myself, and learning to reach out for support, I have come to know a life full of blessings I never thought I’d experience. Put in the work and the blessings keep on coming.-Gabe Iverson.Client Support SpecialistOregon Trail Recovery, LLC.