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As someone with just under seven years in the program, seeing people reach milestones and celebrate sober anniversaries never gets old. Oftentimes when we get sober, one week with no drugs/alcohol can seem like an unreachable goal, let alone 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, multiple months, and multiple years. At a certain point in the program, you can see the light come on in people’s eyes, as they trudge the road of happy destiny one day at a time.
This brings us to the topic of this blog post: celebrating recovery milestones. In the midst of our addictions, the way we celebrated usually involved drugs and/or alcohol (which, let’s be honest, was our answer to most things good, bad, or mediocre). Obviously, that kind of celebration is off the table here. But don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to celebrate being sober that don’t involve drugs or alcohol.
A sober anniversary is a great chance for fellowship. Between inviting friends to meetings (possibly family too if it’s an open meeting) to planning some fellowship activity afterward, there are several options. They include:
One of the simplest ways to celebrate a soberversary is to go out for food after your meeting. Several meetings perfectly line up with traditional mealtimes, meaning it’s a perfect opportunity to spend time with your sober friends afterward. Recently a very good friend of mine reached four years of sobriety, and I had a lot of fun going out for food with him and around 10 other people for dinner after the meeting, a meal which featured good food and plenty of laughter. If you don’t want to pay for dinner at a restaurant, maybe have some people over for dinner or a barbecue (or lunch, maybe even brunch).
Celebrate a sober milestone with a game night, be it at an arcade, bowling, top golf, etc. There are plenty of these kinds of options in the Portland Metro area:
If you’re into arcade games, QuarterWorld out on Hawthorne is a great choice for games, and on top of the games they offer decent food. Ground Kontrol is another great option, as is Avalon Theater and Wonderland. Punch Bowl Social, located downtown at Pioneer Place, offers food, arcade games, billiards, and bowling. Word of warning, those arcades do serve alcohol, so it would be a good idea to go with other sober people and potentially have an escape plan.
If board games are more your thing, Mox Portland on Burnside (less than one block away from Providence Park) is a neat place to get food and play board games or card games. They have a nearly unlimited selection of games, and you can reserve rooms.
If you want to channel your inner Walter Sobchak you can go bowling. There are several bowling spots scattered throughout the city. Don’t worry if you’re not very good, most people don’t spend ample amounts of time bowling. Luckily, it’s an easy game to get the hang of.
If you’re into golf, Top Golf is a fun activity you can play with other people. Top Golf is essentially a driving range with targets. So you’re taking the fun part of golfing, hammering the ball, and focusing solely on that. You could also do a full round of golf as a celebration if you’re into that sort of thing.
If you have the desire to head out of town, you can go on a camping or backpacking trip. There are too many camping and hiking locations in Oregon and SW Washington to list in just this article. Here are a couple lists of campsites/backpacking trips:
If camping isn’t your thing, you can grab a kayak and go kayaking on the Columbia or Willamette rivers or go hiking on one of the many trails in the Portland Metro area.
If you want a more detailed list of sober activities in Oregon and SW Washington, take a look at our previous post about Sober Activities & Things to Do in Portland, OR.
To reach these milestones and be able to celebrate them yourself, first you need to get a foothold in sobriety. That is where Oregon Trail Recovery comes in. With our intervention, detox, IOP, and sober living programs, run by licensed professionals, we can give you a solid base to begin your sobriety journey.
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