Day 110 – Writing for Hope

Day 110

Purpose—what is that, really? I think that’s all Hope ever wanted for me: to love myself and to find a purpose that was mine. Slowly, I am finding it, one word at a time.

One Step Collective started with a simple quote from a movie:

“One Step, One Punch, One Round at a time.”

Rocky said it to Creed, and in the early days of sobriety, it hit me like a freight train. I rewound it and listened again, tears streaming down my face. It wasn’t just a saying—it was a lifeline.

That quote gave me something I hadn’t felt in years: purpose. It echoed through me as I paced that tiny RV, trapped in loops of isolation and fighting shadows of the person I’d been running from my whole life: myself. Back then, I thought I was fighting to get back to Hope, to my friend, to the kiss I played in my mind over and over. But as much as I wanted to escape, I didn’t realize the fight wasn’t for anyone else—it was for me.

I didn’t know what I was doing when I started this journey, and I still don’t fully know. I just knew I needed to write. At first, I wrote to Hope, pouring out my thoughts like a broken dam. But over time, I realized I was writing to survive. Writing became my therapy, my outlet, my way to stop the spinning inside.

A year ago, I couldn’t walk. I was locked in that RV, drowning in dabs to avoid reality. That was the moment I realized I had a Substance Use Disorder, and as much as it crushed me, it also freed me. For the first time, I wasn’t alone. The loop I’d been trapped in wasn’t mine alone to carry.

Now, I write not to Hope but to you, to me, to anyone who might understand what it means to fight the same battle. I write because it’s how I make sense of the chaos, how I remind myself I’m still here, still fighting

And I write for hope—because one step, one punch, one round at a time, I am learning to love myself.

Day 110

One Step. One Punch. One Round. 🌹

—Your Fellow Traveler