High Achiever Quotes

“There is no such thing as a lost cause, and it’s never too late to start over. A flicker of hope in one’s heart is capable of lighting the path to a new destiny.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“I’m Steve, and I’m an addict,” Steve said after raising his hand to share. Steve was in his seventies and always shared first. It was as if he prepared an amazing speech every morning to present to all of us and his words always had a way of putting everything into perspective for me. “I look at these young girls over here, man,” he said pointing to our row, “and I can’t help but feel a bit envious. I’m 71 years old. I’ve got five years clean. I used for fifty years. I missed so damn much. I missed everything.” His voice broke and I could tell he was getting emotional. “I lost my wife once she finally got sick enough of my shit. My kids are adults and haven’t spoken to me in over twenty years—hell—I got grandbabies I ain’t even met.” He stared down at the table for a moment, you could hear a pin drop in that room. When he finally looked up, he looked straight at me and stared into my eyes. “Man, I’ll tell you what…. I would give anything in this world, to go back in time, and enter these rooms when I was your fucking age. Then I might actually have something to look back on and be proud of. You girls are young enough now to get it right, to have a life and make something of yourself. Don’t do what I did. Get it now so that you aren’t my age looking back on your life and thinking damn…I wasted all of it.” It felt like I’d suddenly been struck by lightning. Tears began welling in my eyes as I processed what he’d just said. I imagined what it would be like to have waited until I was an old woman to get clean – if I made it that long. I imagined my children being adults and never speaking to me. The loneliness, the guilt… for what? A momentary high? Never in my life had anyone’s words saturated my skin and seeped into my soul like his just did. I could hear other members voices mumbling as they shared their own bits of wisdom, but all I could do was replay in my head what Steve had said. That was it. That was the moment. Steve’s words changed my life that day. The universe had carefully devised a grand plan to align our paths so we both ended up in the same room that day. Whatever higher power was out there, knew that I needed to hear what that man had just said.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Shocking True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“But addiction is a sneaky bitch. It doesn’t care who you’re dating, who you love, if you have kids, a job, or goals. It doesn’t care who you were or who you plan to be. It creeps in when you least expect it, consumes your thoughts and, eventually, your life.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“A flicker of hope in one’s heart, is capable of lighting the path to a new destiny…”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Shocking True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“What the hell am I doing?” I asked her. Her tail began to wag in response and I couldn’t help but think how fucking wonderful it would be to be a dog. Having no responsibility, no pressure. Just running around and pooping. I hated being human; I hated having to think and make decisions and dig myself out of the bottomless holes that I’d created. It would be so much easier to be a dog.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“It is possible to have an amazing, fun, purposeful life after addiction. It really is. Addiction is not the end. Life is fleeting, and it will be over before you know it. You have an opportunity to say right here, and right now…that addiction is not how my story is going to end.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“Each and every one of you sitting in here right now, has an unbelievable life waiting for you just down the road, a life better than you can dream. All you have to do, is keep walking. No matter how bumpy the road gets, or how many unexpected detours you come across, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep fucking walking.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Shocking True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“well as “quickest thinker during times of distress.” It was as if there were no limits to my lies, because my moral compass had broken a long time ago. Therefore, I was able to say the wildest shit without feeling bad about it. I had to do whatever was necessary to keep this dark side of me hidden—and this time was no different.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“Damn, I didn’t know they did a prostitution sting in the graveyard today! You bitches are looking rough!”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“I was sitting in a cop’s house with a briefcase full of thousands of dollars’ worth of pills on my lap. Even if I wanted to sell all this, I wouldn’t know where to begin—and it would take me years to get rid of all of it. Did”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“I should grab it. I should just grab it, and put it to my head. It would make everything so much easier. On him, on me, my family…I wasn’t cut out for life. I wasn’t any good at it. The only thing I was good at was creating chaos and destruction.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“However, as an addict, if someone offers you drugs—regardless of the brand—you do them.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“Each and every one of you sitting in here right now has an unbelievable life waiting for you just down the road, a life better than you can dream. All you have to do is keep walking. No matter how bumpy the road gets, or how many unexpected detours you come across, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep fucking walking.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“You just saved a life, whether you realize it or not, you did. Maybe yours, maybe theirs, maybe the other girls in this house—or maybe the girl on the street, desperate to find a safe place to get clean. The one who couldn’t get into this program because it was already full. You just freed up two beds for someone who really needs them, someone willing to do whatever it takes to get clean. You don’t know it today, but one day down the road it will become very clear how the choice you made last night rippled out into the universe and changed everything. I am so proud of you.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“Usually whenever any type of negative emotion began creeping in, I ran as fast as I could to my drugs. I numbed my feelings the moment they tried to make themselves known. Now I had no choice but to feel them, and I found I was incapable of handling them very well.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“Babe, there is nothing you could ever do to make me stop loving you. I held you the moment you came into this world and carried you for years after; I will carry you until you are able to walk on your own again, and even then I will be holding your hand to make sure you don’t fall,”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“But just because I wanted to get high doesn’t mean I had to. So I didn’t, no matter how hard it got; I kept going because I knew wonderful things were waiting for me.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“acquired a sponsor, and she helped walk me through the twelve steps. Those steps saved my life, allowed me to understand why I did all the things that I did, and gave me other coping mechanisms and tools to use instead of turning to drugs each time I felt uncomfortable”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“wanted to die, but I wanted to live. I wanted to be clean, but I wanted to get high. I wanted to be normal, but I didn’t have the energy to try. I was broken, in desperate need of repair.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“When you have no one to blame but yourself, you have no choice but to internalize that anger, and having no clue how to release it in a productive way…I knew I was a ticking time bomb.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“The things I did while using didn’t only affect me, or my victims, or my family; they affected a family I wasn’t even aware existed. The consequences of my actions rippled outward like a rock thrown into a pond. I”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“I breathed a sigh of relief. He bought it. I should have felt bad in that moment, I’d left my faithful boyfriend on date-night to do a drug deal, that went horribly wrong – and then used the potential death of a friend to get myself out of a lie. What kind of person does that? An addict… that’s who.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Shocking True Story of One Addict's Double Life

“She deserves to be celebrated.” Jesus Christ. These people had no idea. I was none of those things. I was broken, lost and scarred so deeply that if any of these people truly knew the real me, they would furiously rip those streamers down while ‘shooing’ me out the door.”
― Tiffany Jenkins, High Achiever: The Shocking True Story of One Addict's Double Life