Finding a Reason to Get Out of Bed

Some people get up and the purpose is to go to work every day. Some people might have something planned for the day. But what purpose do we have? What purpose have we set for ourselves to get us out of bed every morning?

When we're drinking, and I can relate to drinking because I never took drugs, the purpose for me to get up every morning was to go and look for my next drink. That was my purpose in life. Satisfaction, I suppose. You get the satisfaction out of what purpose you set for yourself, and something that you've accomplished. But what gets us out of bed every day? We need to set that for ourselves.

When we're drinking, the first thing we do is look for our first drink. That's the purpose. And the first people we basically want to look for are the drug dealers or the grog sellers. They decide what kind of a day we're going to have. "Here, have a drink." They decide.

Think about payday. On payday, everybody's in a good mood. Saying hello to everybody. Getting dressed up. But how come we don't feel like that every day? If it wasn't payday, how would you feel? You get up in a bad mood, or you feel bad, or you don't want to talk to people. Sleep all day. But on payday you're high. And then some people have to pay out all their money, and they end up with nothing.

And what do we do? We look for more drink and get drunk and punish ourselves. We take it out on ourselves. That's what men do. We just seem to punish ourselves. And we take it out on our partners. We take it out on our kids. We take it out on our friends. It just keeps going. It's a cycle. Until you try and address it somewhere.

But remember, these things apply to people who don't drink too. Just because I don't drink anymore, that doesn't mean I don't have problems. When it comes to attitude and behaviour, it applies to everybody. Whether you drink or not, whether you're black or white, whether you're rich or poor. Because we're only human.

There's a term. Dry drunk. Someone who's not drinking but still got the same thinking. Never changed up here. Never changed their attitude. That is why it's very important that when we look for changes, we need to change our attitude. We need to change our behaviour.

Personally, I do that every day. In my quiet time, I look at myself. What kind of a day I had, whether I disrespected people. Because I can't sit down here and say it applies to you but not to me. If my old attitude comes back, I can end up back down the park. Simple as that. One drink can put me back down the park.

The change. It's like the ripple effect. When you throw a rock in the water and that ripple comes out, it spreads to our family and friends. They see the change. They'll see us in a different way. Not just a drunk or a drug addict. Maybe we'll get that respect back.

The word community is made up of two words. Common and unity. Every single one of us on this island, we have something in common. We're all Bwgcolman. That's what we have in common. And through that, there's unity.

For years, we've been punishing ourselves. We punish ourselves for the things we did, for the things we didn't do, for the things we said, and for the things we didn't say. We make ourselves feel bad. We start hating ourselves.

But doing something, helping someone, getting involved in a function. You feel good about it. You achieve something. That's what we need to do on a daily basis.

Because we can't just sit back and allow other people to decide what kind of a day we have. When you go to court, that magistrate decides what happens in your life. You gave them the power to do that. The drug dealers, the sly groggers. You give them the power to control your life.

We need to break away from that dependency and become independent. Where we decide what kind of a day we're going to have.

Tell you the truth. That cemetery's full of people who never made that change. That cemetery's full of young people too. Died young. Out of a group of about twelve boys in my class, I can only think of one that's still alive today.

But the world has changed. And we have to change with it. Find that purpose to get up in the morning. To get out of bed. To make you feel good about yourself.

Because no one's going to do it for you. You have to do it yourself.