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Rock Bottom

The end is only the beginning....


I am very grateful today to be part of this amazing world of recovery and the amazing people that have been put into my life. Its almost a passing of the torch so here I go....I am Chelsea a young person in recovery, my good friend Hillary has now graduated and is giving my the opportunity to share my thoughts and my journey through recovery. I often feel like when I speak or write I do not make sense so you may have to bare with my craziness. :) I am a student at UNC Charlotte working on my bachelors in Exercise Science and am an active member of the Collegiate Recovery Community here on campus. I met Hillary about a year and half ago when she was just starting meetings on campus. To think back now on the times we sat just the two of us in a room wondering if anyone else was going to show up. It is amazing now to see how far the Collegiate Recovery Community has come in just the short amount of time. There has been so many opportunities put into my life just by getting involved and it has truly been a blessing in my recovery. The CRC is like watching a baby grow and not really knowing what to expect. I do know that everyone who I have met on campus seems very supportive and to tell you the truth I did not think there was that many other crazy people in recovery like me on this college campus but there are :). We have a fundraiser coming up on February 14th for the CRC/YPR down town Charlotte. These types of events are completely new to me and it has been a huge learning curve. YPR (Young People in Recovery) is the grass roots movement in educating,  advocating and collaborating with in our community on how to support the young population of people in recovery. I believe that my lived experience or my story might just be able to help someone so I try to spread the message.

I was not always as free spirited or open minded about recovery. To tell you the truth I never really knew anything about it. I was a "normal" child and grew up in a "normal" home. I started drinking around my middle school years but it was not until high school where the consequences started. I was very good at getting in trouble with the police. It started with under age drinking tickets, drug charges, DUI's. I almost felt at home in a court room after the first couple times. It seemed like most everyone I knew had gotten into some trouble in their life so I seemed to fit in. I always thought I was happy and that I was a good person but my actions and thoughts proved otherwise. Now looking back I can see that I was very stubborn and that my anger took over a lot of my life. I was ridden with panic attacks and I could find myself wondering about my morals or if I had any. After starting college I seemed to be doing well in a new city and meeting new people. I started going out and partying on the weekends and found my school work slowly slipping. I got a few more tickets and then another DUI. This last DUI stands out to me because I could not remember anything from that night. Needless to say I ended up in the hospital, thankfully no one was injured my self included. For the next few days after that I was completely in a fog. At this point I was blaming anyone else for the situation I had gotten myself into. I think that was a reoccurring theme in my life "blaming others". I was no stranger to court and felt as if a good lawyer would be able to get me out of it. This was not the case and not even the best lawyer could have stopped the judge from my conviction. I was sentenced to jail time. Now that was one thing I thought I would never experience. I felt at the time that I was not a harden criminal and there was no reason for them to send me to jail....Well it turns out that sitting in that cell was the best thing that could have happened to me.
 I realized that I did not want to spend my life confined and knew deep down I had more potential. I had a very hard time getting sober it was not easy but I worked with a lot of amazing people and am truly grateful for the mistakes I have made. I only say this now because I have amazing relationships with my family and friends. People trust me to do what I say I am going to do. I have had the privilege to share my story with people in hopes that they may find recovery before they go through everything I went through and everything I put the people closest to me through. I Believe in helping others in anyway possible and working with groups like the CRC and YPR has enhanced my belief that if I can do this than it is possible for anyone out there.

So if you want to stop by and talk the CRC is room 121 in the Student Health Center on campus!

I am SUPER STOKED about this!!!  Help Support the Cause!!
https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/ChelseaSchmidt/hollywood-over-the-edge

https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/hillary-belk/hollywood-over-the-edge


YPR
http://youngpeopleinrecovery.org/


CRC at UNCC
http://studenthealth.uncc.edu/wellness/collegiate-recovery-community-crc