Back
in 1995, I remember being so tired of living my life addicted to drugs
and alcohol, not being able to think from one day to the next day.
I just did not want to live that way anymore, so that night I was
able to get some sleep; but the very next day I got myself together.
I went to San Francisco General Hospital
and asked the doctor that was at the front desk could he help me?
“I am an addict and alcoholic that I no longer want to be like this
any more so please help me.” He said to me, “Have a seat. I will get
someone to help you.” And he did. He introduced me to a social worker.
We started talking and I went on to tell her my story. Before I knew
it, she was calling programs to see if any of them had room for me.
It was not until the next day that she found a nice program for me.
That was the day I started my new life.
From that day on I started going to
lots of meetings. I started to work on myself. That went on for the
next year or so. I graduated from one program into a longer program.
By this time of my life, I was ready to do something that I always
wanted to do and that was go back to school. So I did. I enrolled
in City College. I went there for awhile until I started feeling like
maybe this was not what I wanted right now. So I started going back
to meetings; but as I was going to all of those meetings, I just could
not stop thinking about going back to school.
So once again I went back to school.
This time I went to the Adult Learning Center. I could not stop thinking
about how bad I wanted to learn to read, write, spell and so on.
Also, I was still going to my aftercare
and I overheard my friend saying that she was going to Project Read.
The word ‘read’ stood out, so I asked her what is Project Read all
about? She went on to tell me all about it. Something else she said
to me that I knew I would like. She said that you will get a tutor
that will work with you one on one. At this time of my life I felt
like maybe that’s what I needed because of all this going back and
forth to school. It was not working for me. So I asked for the phone
number and I called Project Read. They gave me an appointment for
the next orientation.
After I attended the orientation there
was another appointment. That’s when I was told that they were going
to get me a tutor. All I could think about was my tutor was going
to judge me. Because I could remember in my adolescent days going
to school and always having this feeling that I was being judged because
I was so slow and did not know how to read very good. But at the age
of 47 I was determined to learn to read. About two weeks later I received
the call saying they had me a tutor. When I went to meet her, it was
like God placed her in my life because I felt so comfortable being
around someone you have just met not even twenty minutes. It was a
very good feeling knowing I had someone that I did not feel like I
was going to be judged.
As the time went on, I started feeling
a connection between us. It’s been about 7 to 8 months I’ve been working
with her. Not at any time did she make me feel that I couldn’t learn.
Like I said, it’s been 7 to 8 months and I have already achieved some
of my goals in Project Read. I learned to work on the computer, I
log in and I get my email. I know how to send email. I learned to
do spelling on the computer. I know how to use spell check for my
words that I am not sure about the spelling. And working with my tutor,
I have improved my reading. I improved in pronouncing my words and
also I’ve learned to get in and out on the computer.
Thank you very much for your patience,
Diane. Thank you also Project Read for being there for me.