We introduced our supporters to Brandon back in 2014 when he was well into recovery as a patient at Evergreen Treatment Services and studying molecular biology at Western Washington University.
If you haven’t watched Brandon’s story, watch now.
To commemorate Recovery Month, we checked back in with Brandon to see what life in recovery is like almost 6 years later. Here’s what he has to say about his life now, what recovery means to him, and what he’s looking forward to in the years to come.
If you’d rather read than listen, here’s the transcript:
Since that last video was made, I did get my degree in molecular biology. And I got a job in Seattle doing research as a food microbiologist, working with food microbes, pathogens. I did that for a few years and decided to get a master’s degree. I’m at Oregon State University, and I’ve been here for two years. And I’m almost done. I have to turn in my thesis in one week!
The master’s degree is in food microbiology. I’m already working, managing the microbiology program at a food company here in Corvallis, Oregon.
To me, recovery is just continually bettering yourself and how you react to things and deal with things. Because that was a constant source of why I kept using. So that’s been the main focus of recovery for the last 11 years—working on that.
I am looking forward to not being in school anymore. I’ve been in school for 10 years, more or less, and I’m looking forward to being able to work, live life, own a house, and be able to be normal, really. To me, I’m happy to just be able to go to work every day, enjoy my life, and buy a piece of property here in the country.
My life is just continuing to get better.
