What takes place at an AA meeting? What is an Al-anon meeting? Do I have a predetermined judgment on the participants in the groups? Do I have a predetermined vision of the atmosphere? Will I be made to participate in the discussion? Do I have a pre-disposition of the gender and race of the participants? All these questions were views in my mind once I received the assignment. The images that I had were blue collar members, participants cursing at each other, the facilitator trying to gain control of the meeting and calming the hostility. I imagined the meeting taking place in a low light environment, possibly a basement. There would be more white male participants than women or members of another race or gender. As I thought about the assignment
…show more content…
I sat in my car for about 10 minutes before I decided to go into the meeting. While I was sitting in my car observing the parking lot to see who is entering the meeting, I was anticipating possible questions or what I would say if I was asked to speak. I can to the conclusion if I was asked to speak I would let the members know that I was there to observe. The meeting took place at a local church. The parking lot was well lit which dispersed my pre-conceived notion. When I finally entered the building, all the members were in a circle listening to a guest speaker talking about his life as an alcoholic. I was nervous because I thought I would be asked why I was attending the meeting but that question was never asked. I looked around to see if my pre-conceived notion of the members existed. It was a mixture of genders but the majority of the members were Caucasian. No one seemed to be irate but no one seemed to be very happy. The guest speaker was talking about how many times he went to prison for being pulled over for a DUI, how he caused problems for the police officers at the jail, and how each correction officer knew his name when he arrived. He explained after he became sober, he would continue to tell himself that he need to seek help and stay with the process but he never followed through with seeking help. He stated that in his mind, he knew his limits but when he started drinking, he
I sat in my car for about 10 minutes before I decided to go into the meeting. While I was sitting in my car observing the parking lot to see who is entering the meeting, I was anticipating possible questions or what I would say if I was asked to speak. I can to the conclusion if I was asked to speak I would let the members know that I was there to observe. The meeting took place at a local church. The parking lot was well lit which dispersed my pre-conceived notion. When I finally entered the building, all the members were in a circle listening to a guest speaker talking about his life as an alcoholic. I was nervous because I thought I would be asked why I was attending the meeting but that question was never asked. I looked around to see if my pre-conceived notion of the members existed. It was a mixture of genders but the majority of the members were Caucasian. No one seemed to be irate but no one seemed to be very happy. The guest speaker was talking about how many times he went to prison for being pulled over for a DUI, how he caused problems for the police officers at the jail, and how each correction officer knew his name when he arrived. He explained after he became sober, he would continue to tell himself that he need to seek help and stay with the process but he never followed through with seeking help. He stated that in his mind, he knew his limits but when he started drinking, he