Darkness & Light | Noah’s New Friend Story

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Hey guys, Noah, here!

I have amazing news; we are going to have a new contributor to the blog. His name is Mike Gardipee.

He has had input before on a previous blog post that my sister will direct you to, but over the past three months I have been trying to convince Mike to start writing.

His message is so powerful that I wish I would have met him years ago.

He has been in prison for nine years, and I know this because that date also happens to be his birthday, and we just celebrated it. By that, I mean the last day “he used” not the day he was actually born on; it’s a Narcotic Anonymous thing. 

I met Mike a few years ago but didn’t really meet him until about 19 months ago when I first came down to the drug program myself.

I was in the program, and he had already finished but was still volunteering his time to help out because he had felt the program had given him so much that he wanted to pay it forward.

I didn’t believe him because I was probably in the same mindset he was in when he started the program, and some of those thoughts were, “I am here to get the time off and get back to my family and nothing else.” I certainly wasn’t going to drink the Kool-Aid as some like to say.

I thought Mike was a fake because he had a “blue band,” which meant he was accomplished in treatment to the cops, but to the inmates they are simply a kiss ass that either defrauded or told his way to the top. Well, I never really gave Mike much of a chance, but over the 14 months that I was in the program, I started to think differently about Mike. 

It doesn’t take more than a couple minutes of listening to Mike talk to realize his story and message is authentic and you will soon figure that out when I submit his first post, which will be coming next.

I just read it and the hair is still standing up on my arms.

I have now been going to Narcotics Anonymous for over six months and these are the months I really began to get to know Mike, learn about his past, the things that make him tick, and truly how far he has come to be the person he is today. And I can tell you, it is nothing short of a miracle. 

I think he has also heard me share about the blog, the conversations Morgan and I are having with people, and the impact it’s making, not only for myself but for the readers based on the feedback we have received.

A month ago, he came up to me and said he wants in. He wanted to let me know he didn’t want to commit until he was done with his semester at Mount Marty when he could devote his full attention because his recovery is something he takes very seriously.

I told him I couldn’t wait and whenever he was ready I would love to sit down and give him some guidance on where to start. Well, that conversation happened over the weekend before Christmas, and by the end of it, he said he knew where to start.

I am not going to give too much away, but I will probably write posts that correlate with his messages because they inspire me so much and I’m lucky to have him as a new friend here on the inside. I have had many times where I left a meeting after hearing Mike speak, and I immediately went to the computer and started to write. But without further ado…I would like to introduce you guys to Mike! 

He’ll be here tomorrow on c2s with his first post, a story that will forever have an impact in my life. 

– Noah