What’s Your Canvas Going to Look Like?
Hi my name is Luke de Leseleuc (the last name is pronounced, The Lazy Luke, but hey, I am not lazy…lol), and I’ve been asked to introduce myself to the readers of the BeYouPromise.org Blog.
I always seem to have a hard time with introductions on paper. I find it much easier to do it face to face. So here I go…
I’ve always had a knack for writing, and one of my biggest passions is to look at a blank page, and turn it into something that people can identify with… Well that’s what I hope! Sometimes, it doesn’t always workout that way.
Writing and blogging for me, became a BIG passion, when I found myself sitting in a treatment centre. It was one of the lowest points of my life. So, I decided that a good way for me to journal, would be to write a daily blog about my struggles, my hopes, and my fears. I had a lot of internal questions that I needed to ask myself, and the blog was an opportunity for me to look at myself from a different angle… a different vantage point… a different perspective… the black and white perspective of being transparent and vulnerable for everyone to see. Was I ready for that? Not really! But I felt it was time for people to see the real me, not the person with the mask on. It was time for me to expose to everyone, the shame, the guilt, and the pain that had been brewing deep within me, for over 21 years!
In the beginning it was really raw! But I continued to write… continued to explore… and as I became more honest and vulnerable with myself, the healing began! That is when the self-forgiveness began. That’s when my life took a big change. Was it easy? Nope! But life isn’t always easy and we all know it isn’t always fair. So what has happened since the beginning of my blogging in the Treatment Centre?
Well, one thing I discovered as I was writing my blog, is that the people who were trying to change their lives, had many obstacles and hoops to jump through, that the everyday “Normies” (normal people) didn’t have to go through. It’s unfortunate that in today’s society there are still labels attached to people who are struggling…there is still a Stigma attached, that is very real! So that’s when I started to talk to people…that’s when I started to hear THEIR stories…THEIR struggles…THEIR fears… That is when I started to think about helping these people, and that is when I started becoming a “Voice for the Voiceless.”
So here I am today at the age of 55, talking to you from my new office and starting a new job as the new Community Outreach Coordinator for BeYouPromise.org.
Now can our situations in life change? Yes they can! I am a living example of a man who 11 short months ago was sitting in a treatment centre, feeling broken…feeling defeated… and feeling helpless… It all started for me at a library, staring at a blank canvas with a keyboard, and a computer screen… with a willingness and a desire to be open…to be honest… and the desire to stop drinking.
That is when my blank canvas became the beginning, of the person, and man, that I was born to be. My hope and my desire in my new position is to share with people my story. To tell people who are willing to listen with an open mind, that there is a better way to live, and that none of us have to feel pressured into using substances of ANY kind! We all have one life… one blank canvas… and one story to tell.