Good takes action for better life

by Laura Cain, co-entertainment editor

At 6-foot-6, with blonde hair and blue eyes, Alex Good is a hard person to forget. Not only do his physical features stand out, but his, poise, personality and most of all, his story, are what make him shine.

Good has attended South Plains College for two and a half years and is expected to graduate at the end of the spring semester. Then he will move on to Texas Tech University, where he will major in education, specifically history. His hopes are to be a high school history teacher.

Although Good is on track now, he was not always heading in the right direction. For two and a half years, Good was taken over by alcoholism.

“My entire life was consumed by it,” Good says.

Good was born in Odessa and moved to Lubbock when he was in elementary school. In high school, Good was involved in computer science, drum line, academic decathlon, Business Professionals of America and was selected for Who’s Who. He graduated with honors from Lubbock High School in 2004, and started at Texas Tech University in the fall.

During his high school career, he had a few drinks but was never into drinking and partying. Two weeks before he started at Texas Tech, he started drinking regularly.

Good was in the Honors College at Tech, with a double major and also working in the computer store on campus. So he would limit his drinking to the weekends only. As the semester went on, he began to look forward more and more to the weekends. Eventually, he started drinking on Thursdays and any time that he had days off.

During the Christmas break, he drank more frequently because school was not in session and he also did not have to worry about going to work. In February 2005, he got wasted during the day for the first time. This made him realize that he might have a problem. However, Good had an accident that would send his drinking into a downward spiral.

In March 2005, Good broke his wrist, putting on hold, if not eliminating, his plans that he had made. Good was planning on joining the Texas Tech drum line, which was now impossible. He also was not able to have a job. This was upsetting to Good, and it also left him with too much free time, so his drinking increased. Also, because of his excessive drinking, he began to experiment with drugs.

Any chance Good had to drink, he took. The first time he stole, it was from a close mentor so that he could get alcohol. This mentor would make occasional runs to the strip for him. He went to the mentor’s house to get alcohol and he was not home, so Good simply stole it. He did so without any remorse or second thoughts because he had his fix.

That summer, he moved out of his mother’s house to avoid accountability for his problem. He moved in with a friend but was not able to pay rent that whole summer. All of his paychecks went to drinking, food, and video games. Along with drinking, Good was also getting more involved with drugs. At the end of the summer, he moved back in with his mom.

Good attended Texas Tech for three semesters and then decided to take off the fall semester of 2005 to figure out what he wanted to do about school, money and a job. However, it was difficult to hold a job and maintain his habits.  His habits took over every part of his life. He became emotionally void and was always making bad choices.

One of his ways of rationalizing his habits was to surround himself with friends and people who were like him. This way no one questioned his extreme substance abuse. In the spring of 2006, he enrolled at South Plains College, taking six hours. Unfortunately, he was unable to keep up with his classes.

“Everything was about getting messed up,” says Good.

Good would go to parties and bring his own alcohol so he didn’t have to worry about being cut off. He constantly lied about his financial state and would steal money from his mom. His whole life was about lying and covering his tracks.

By October of 2006, his girlfriend of more than a year broke up with him, which sent him deeper into his alcohol.

“I was chasing an elusive high and had to be under the influence of something,” Good says.

He says that he would take anything from hallucinogens, to alcohol to bottles of Robitussin.  One night, he drank and entire handle of liquor between two people in a four-hour period.

In spring of 2007, he decided not to drink for the first month of school so he could get off to a good start. The night before school started, he went out to a bar and spent $130. He barely made it to school the next day, still drunk. He constantly would make deals with himself and consistently broke them.

“As ashamed as I was, all I could do was brag,” Good says.

Good continued to lose his jobs for being late, drunk or hung over. As much as he knew he needed to quit, he couldn’t imagine his life without it. Every day, his life consisted of waking up, going to school, skipping his last class, going to a friend’s house, and getting high and drunk.

In March, he was able to control his drinking for two weeks. He would get moody, but it gave him an opportunity to get what he wanted done. On Saint Patrick’s Day, he rewarded himself by getting drunk. He threw a party funded with money stolen from his mom. That night, he blacked out and drove into a mailbox, wrecking his car beyond repair.        

“I called the cops on myself and was unable to find a ride because all of my friends were just as paranoid and selfish as I was,” says Good.

The next day, he borrowed his mom’s car and went and got drunk as if nothing had happened.

On March 19, 2007, he approached his mom and told her that he might have a drinking problem. Two men from a halfway house came and talked with him, staying with him until he had gone an entire day sober.

Good has been sober for more than 10 months now. He is now able to participate in relationships, friendships, desires and drives. However, it did not happen overnight.

“It took quite a few decisions and a lot of action,” Good says. “After a month of that, I could see how I benefited from it.”

He was offered a former job back, and he has since been promoted to assistant manager.

Currently, Good goes to school full time and works full time. He is in an alcohol recovery program and attends meetings regularly. He is on track to graduate from Texas Tech in December of 2009.

“I thought a good life was for people more lucky than me,” Good says, “and today I understand that my destiny is something I can play a part in, as long as I am present to do so.”

Good turned 21 in August and celebrated it clean and sober.

“I have found more freedom in sobriety,” says Good.

He enjoys watching movies, fellowship with friends, old and new, and motorcycles. His financial situation has improved to the point where he is in the position to buy a motorcycle.

“I don’t know if I will be sober the rest of my life,” Good says,  “but tomorrow when I wake up I will ask the same question that I’ve been asking for the past 10 months, which is for the opportunity to be clean and sober for that day.”

Photos by Laura Cain/Plainsman Press