Louis L.
Class of June ’09
Louis L. came to the school a few days before June 07’ graduation due to his insane ways of doing things which revolved around substance abuse, constant isolation, and out-of-control behavior. When he came to the school, he had no intention of doing “the right thing” and thought only about going home and leaving the school.
After 8 months of repeating the same behavior over and over again, he decided to do something different. He started trusting people little by little and started to make changes little by little.
After about a year here, he joined yearbook, and he spent the last six months of his stay as one of three work study students in journalism, working as The Family Times photo editor and production manager.
Three weeks before his June 09’ graduation, Louis’ father died. He was fearful that this would affect everything when he left: his college, where he was going to stay, what he was going to do to stay sober, and the challenges he was going to face after leaving the school.
At first, he succumbed to isolating and video games as a way to get by. But then he started to get involved with AA, prayer and meditation to get through the day. The thing that helped Louis most was when he found a good home group, The Atlantic Group (which consists of other FFS alumni including Pat M. and Ian F.
Things have been going well for Louis ever since then and he says that just being with friends makes him happy enough and brightens up his day. Louis has a message for the newcomer, which is “Things will be hard at first but they do get better.”
