Summary of AA Meeting
Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Experience
I decided to attend a meeting based first (and almost solely) on convenience of the location. So I decided to attend a meeting right here in Batavia. The “Batavia 12 & 12” at the Holy Trinity Church down on 6th & Wood St. They hold meeting on Mondays around 11:00am. The main focus is to follow the 12 steps in order and work on them in a more traditional fashion. They do have the big book, but follow it more in a step by step focus. However karma decided to rear its head and make it a Closed Meeting, meaning that it is not as open to the public to sit on and they only allow members who are coming with a problem related to alcohol. So at first I was turned away but, I was lucky enough to know a person (local firefighter) who attends the church, and talked the host into letting me sit in on a meeting. So with the awkwardness of getting into the door out of the way, it was time for the meeting. Obviously due to the location itself, it came as no surprise that the meeting consisted of roughly around 15-20 people, including the person in charge of the meeting and myself. All the chairs were set up like a classroom. I will be honest; the atmosphere of the meeting was actually much more mono-tone than I was lead to believe. Not that an A.A. meeting is always upbeat or depressing but, it seems like this was a mix between. Some were drinking their coffee, others just sitting and fiddling with their hands. One man however, seemed to be uncomfortable with me. I guessed it was because I was the newcomer to the meeting, and the youngest looking guy in the room. He kept staring at me and glancing at me from his chair at the front. Then the meeting got underway.
Everyone started with a sort of, hello and how are you, type of thing. Everyone went around saying their name, how long they have been attending the meetings and, something interesting related to how they have been working on staying sober. One man briefly talked about
I decided to attend a meeting based first (and almost solely) on convenience of the location. So I decided to attend a meeting right here in Batavia. The “Batavia 12 & 12” at the Holy Trinity Church down on 6th & Wood St. They hold meeting on Mondays around 11:00am. The main focus is to follow the 12 steps in order and work on them in a more traditional fashion. They do have the big book, but follow it more in a step by step focus. However karma decided to rear its head and make it a Closed Meeting, meaning that it is not as open to the public to sit on and they only allow members who are coming with a problem related to alcohol. So at first I was turned away but, I was lucky enough to know a person (local firefighter) who attends the church, and talked the host into letting me sit in on a meeting. So with the awkwardness of getting into the door out of the way, it was time for the meeting. Obviously due to the location itself, it came as no surprise that the meeting consisted of roughly around 15-20 people, including the person in charge of the meeting and myself. All the chairs were set up like a classroom. I will be honest; the atmosphere of the meeting was actually much more mono-tone than I was lead to believe. Not that an A.A. meeting is always upbeat or depressing but, it seems like this was a mix between. Some were drinking their coffee, others just sitting and fiddling with their hands. One man however, seemed to be uncomfortable with me. I guessed it was because I was the newcomer to the meeting, and the youngest looking guy in the room. He kept staring at me and glancing at me from his chair at the front. Then the meeting got underway.
Everyone started with a sort of, hello and how are you, type of thing. Everyone went around saying their name, how long they have been attending the meetings and, something interesting related to how they have been working on staying sober. One man briefly talked about