Aa Meeting Reflection

Before the service learning project I had never attended an AA meeting, now I have attended two. When I first began looking into AA meetings, I noticed there was variety of different kinds. There are some meetings for young people, women, gay people, those who seriously want to quit drinking, and there are also some in prison. However, only some of the meetings were open (meaning anyone could come), this slightly limited my options.
Although I had done some research, I had no idea to what to expect in regards to how the meetings would go. When I arrived, I first noticed it was almost completely men, around their mid-forties. There were a couple of women, and one younger person (mid-to-late twenties), and everyone was sitting outside. The building had a house-like quality, and at first I thought I had come to the wrong place, until I saw the front of the building. It looked a lot more informal than I had imaged. I imaged every one sitting in an awkward circle, staring at
while this may be true sometimes, it is not always the case. None of these people seemed lazy, they all had motivation to rid alcohol from their life to better themselves. Of course, many alcoholics struggle with recovery, or relapse, but it does not mean they are lazy, or do not try. During researching AA groups, I found many that discussed veterans. Many people will never understand what those who have served have gone through, regardless of whether they believe in war or not. So just to assume someone is unemployed, or never even tried to get a job, because they are an alcoholic, are making unjustified assumptions. They do not know whether that person is a struggling veteran, or suddenly lost a job. Regardless of the story behind their alcoholism, they are still human, and their problem should not be disregarded. I found many of these stereotypes to be disproved at both of the meetings I went