SMART Is What You Do With The Rest Of Your Life

SMART Is What You Do With The Rest Of Your Life

What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? For many, it’s hearing from someone who has stayed sober through cultural pressure, family loss, and everyday stress, and still shows up to help others. That’s exactly what you’ll get as Rosana Panjon shares how SMART Recovery became, in her words, “the after” — the thing you do with the rest of your life.

Rosana talks about growing up in a Puerto Rican “party household” where alcohol was part of every celebration, even children’s birthdays. She explains how breaking that “cultural barrier” of silence and denial made her the first in her family to face addiction head-on, staying sober since 2008. She’s honest that recovery “is not rainbows and unicorns” and describes stigma at work, family judgement, and the isolation she chose to protect her sobriety.

Things get heavy as Rosana recounts losing two nephews to fentanyl, her father’s heart surgery, and the murder of her sister, all while raising two daughters and dealing with her child’s health challenges. She admits there were moments she nearly drank again and even thought about ending her life, including the night a tequila sat untouched in front of her until a quiet hug and the words “whatever you’re going through is not worth it” pulled her back.

From there, the episode traces how Rosana moved into peer recovery support work, kept being “called” back to it, and finally trained as a SMART Recovery facilitator. She now runs a Spanish-language SMART meeting and dreams of a bilingual community centre offering SMART groups in both English and Spanish. This conversation is grounded, funny in places (wait till you hear about the Puerto Rican country singer phase), and deeply human.

If you’re looking for a sober role model who admits the mess and still keeps going, Rosana’s story might be the nudge you need today. What could “the after” look like for you?