Running Toward Connection | Sober and Unashamed

She was good. Really good. Like most high school stars who are awarded full-ride athletic scholarships to division one universities, Amber was used to being the best ball player on the diamond. Her freshman year at Baylor University in 2000 would be her first experience having to work hard to keep up. How did she respond? She drank.

Amber gained 30 pounds her first year in college, never missed an opportunity to party, underachieved academically, and lost her scholarship. It was over before her collegiate athletic career ever had a chance to get started.

Her dreams of softball success — the dreams that felt like her unstoppable destiny her whole life to that point — she drank those dreams away. How did she respond? She drank more. Her drinking progressed until Amber was drinking a bottle or two of wine every single day.

With dreams of athletic excellence dashed, Amber struggled through a “normal” existence medicated by alcohol. She went back to school earning both bachelors and masters degrees with frequent binge-drinking sessions as part of her academic routine. She took a stressful job as a teacher in a low-income school in Northern California while drinking away her anxiety nightly.

Amber got married and had kids. The pregnancy-induced sobriety opened her eyes to the dysfunction in…