The Best Day of My Life [Season 10, Episode 18]The Best Day of My Life [Season 10, Episode 18]
AA Grapevine's Podcast
Tracy from Toronto shares her journey from drinking in a motel to building a sober life through AA, sponsorship and intensive meeting attendance. The episode also features voices from the San Diego Spring Roundup, highlighting how service, community and fun help people stay connected in recovery.
36:49•4 May 2026
From Motel Room to Medallions: Tracy’s AA Journey and a San Diego Sobriety Bash
Episode Overview
- You don’t need to be sober to attend AA; a desire to stop drinking is enough, and change can start from simply showing up.
- Surrendering to help, including detox, treatment and following a sponsor’s suggestions, can provide structure when life feels unmanageable.
- Regular meeting attendance, such as 90 meetings in 90 days, helps build connection, accountability and a sense that people genuinely care if you show up.
- Fellowship support can carry people through major losses and crises without returning to alcohol.
- Events like the San Diego Spring Roundup offer fun, community and service opportunities that show sobriety can be both social and enjoyable.
“I was so sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This AA Grapevine instalment brings together humour, honesty and some very raw stories of recovery, making it a great fit if you're looking for both a laugh and a bit of hope. Don and Sam kick things off with their trademark banter, sharing about spiritual experiences, wordplay and the sheer struggle of opening the latest Grapevine envelope. Their light-hearted chat sets the stage for a much heavier, but very relatable, story.
Tracy from Toronto takes centre stage as she talks about her article, "The Best Day of My Life". She describes going from a "four bedroom, four bathroom, giant house" to living alone with vodka in a "scummy motel", convinced she was "a bottom feeder" who cared about nothing but the next drink. Her turning point came when her boss’s brother invited her to an AA meeting.
Seeing a sign that read "You Are No Longer Alone" nearly broke her: "I very rarely let myself cry... but I almost cried seeing that sign." Tracy admits she came to meetings drunk for months, saying she was "so sick and tired of being sick and tired" before finally surrendering, going to detox and treatment, and throwing herself into 90 meetings in 90 days.
She explains how her sponsor guided her through basic daily life, and how, when her estranged husband died, "it didn’t even occur" to her to drink – a huge contrast to her old thinking. The episode then shifts to the San Diego Spring Roundup, where Sam chats with Teddy, Jenny, Matt and Renea.
They talk about first-time roundups, musical jam sessions, service commitments, and the comfort of being surrounded by people who are "just trying to stay sober and have fun". If you’re wondering whether AA, fellowship or Grapevine stories could actually help, this one gives plenty of real-world examples and a few good chuckles along the way. What part of Tracy’s or the roundup stories can you see yourself in?
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