My road to recovery began the day I was sick and tired of being homeless, hungry, and broke. I did not know where to turn and someone on the street told me to go to the local hospital and say I was suicidal, and they would keep me for observation for 7 days. In those 7 days I would be clean and fed and for the time being a roof over my head. Once those 7 days were up, they were ready to discharge me and again I made the statement about being suicidal. The nurse informed me that if I kept saying that they would not let me leave. I told her I did not want to leave. She asked me what I wanted, and I said, “I want to go to rehab”.
She got me into Penn Foundation where I spent 48 days. I met a special employee by the name of MJ who really helped me realize who I was and that everything is not about me. He helped me understand that with my addiction I hurt a lot of people in my path of destruction and that I needed to learn to love myself before I could love anyone else. At that moment I knew returning to Reading again would not be beneficial to my sobriety. I was afraid if I did return, I would have to many temptations from my old hangouts. Therefore, I decided to go to a half-way house two hours away in a little town of Edwardsville.
There I got a job at a temp agency. I eventually picked up a part time job at a local restaurant. They were so pleased they offered me a full-time position. One day I was asked to help vacuum the dining rooms for some extra pay and I happily accepted. I did such a good job the general manager asked me to take over the cleaning contract.
Fast forward today, I opened my own industrial cleaning business and now I have three contracts for that same restaurant that gave me an opportunity. I can also proudly state that I am contributing to the economy by providing employment to seven other individuals.
Getting sober is not an easy choice and it is not a choice anyone can make for you. There is no cure for this addiction all we can do is take one day at a time.
My name is Florito Ortiz and I am a recovering addict.
