As a student of women's history, I feel compelled to recognize and honor the pioneering women who came before me and paved the way for me to recover. This includes women like Marty Mann, who was the first woman and lesbian to achieve long-term sobriety in AA.
She also advocated for better treatment for alcoholism and was the founder of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. I am also passionate about honoring the multitude of other remarkable women whose footsteps I follow in recovery.
I'm talking about the women who showed up in recovery programs in the decades before I did who helped normalize and grow women's recovery communities, who created space for the rest of us to fall or step into when we were ready. Because they committed themselves to a recovery program—and stayed—I had a place to land when I was ready to start my own recovery journey.
The number and nature of women's recovery communities has expanded, and each of us is taking our place in the unfolding of women's recovery history. I honor you for being a part of it.
I honor all of us. We are all pioneers in our own recovery; we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the recovery movement for those to come.