July 3, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- By all accounts, Matthew Wilkinson had a pretty normal life growing up and even into high school.
After graduating from Rockford High School in 1992, he headed north to Big Rapids to enroll in Ferris State University’s Professional Golf Management program with an eye toward a career as a club pro.
But three decades after graduating from high school, Matthew Wilkinson was not working at a country club, giving golf lessons, supervising greenskeepers and deciding what merchandise to stock in the pro shop.
Instead, he was a divorced alcoholic who spent eight months just prior to the pandemic living in his car. That period, from August 2019 through March 2020 was rock bottom, he said. But escaping rock bottom is a tale in and of itself, one he willingly shares -- not for his own sake but rather in the hope that his story might inspire hope in others.
“There are certainly multitudes of people who have faced daunting challenges and risen above them, and I myself have such a long way to go and much to learn,” he said. “When I share during an AA meeting, I focus on lessons I have learned and solutions that have worked for me. So perhaps my story can inspire someone else in some small way.”
Wilkinson said his journey to alcoholism began innocently enough.
“My senior year of high school, I started out as pretty strait-laced and a good student,” he recalled. “An all-As student who excelled in golf and music, had a part-time job. But one day I gave a kid a ride home from school, and he introduced me to marijuana. I absolutely loved it and was off to the races.”
By spring break of his senior year, he’d been arrested at school for possession of marijuana, was suspended for 10 days and almost didn't graduate (his "performance" at the senior party later in the year also played a role, he admitted).
Still, he rode off to Big Rapids hopeful about his education and a future as a PGA pro.
“My first two semesters went well,” he said. A summer internship was also a good thing. But toward the end of that internship, he was introduced to “some fun-loving, middle-aged guys who loved to drink and golf on Fridays, and I was off to the races again.”
When he returned to Ferris State in the fall, his priorities were scrambled.
“I wanted to work full time and party when I wanted to,” he said. “I was going to make money and climb the ladder of success while my poor peers were stuck in school writing papers and studying for exams. Ironically, they are probably successful now, and I haven't been so much.”
On one level though, his plan succeeded. He was able to party at will. But with that freewill came plenty of problems.
There was a DUI in his early 20s. Then a marriage, a brief period of sobriety, a return to drinking and a divorce. By this time, he was physically dependent on alcohol. An alcoholic.
Still, he was able to hold a job for almost 20 years, he said. But the bottom fell out in early 2019. He’d been living with a girlfriend but, in his words, “wasn’t pulling my weight at home.” He moved in with some friends on the condition that he didn’t drink, but he lied to them, was caught and was asked to move out. He was arrested yet again for another DUI, continued to drink, worked odd jobs here and there and began living in his car.
By November 2019, he said, he had no job, no career, no friends or family, no money, nowhere to live and no direction.
“I was scared, alone and clueless,” he said.
He decided, not for the first time, to stop drinking, the first step on what he knows is a lifelong journey of sobriety. He got an overnight job at Meijer stocking groceries. Another step. And when he looked for direction for his life, GRCC helped him find it.
“During intensive outpatient therapy and after a couple months of sobriety, the therapist running the classes planted a seed in my head related to making a career in the field of substance use disorder,” Wilkinson said. “That seed turned into me enrolling in the Addiction Studies program at GRCC.”
The Futures for Frontliners program -- a state scholarship program for Michiganders without college degrees who worked in essential industries during the state COVID-19 shutdown in spring 2020 -- made it possible for him to afford college, and being back in school in his late 40s was surreal but satisfying.
“Walking into the Student Center to get my books and ID card was very exciting and gave me a sense of finally once again being where I belong,” he said. “Being back in school gave me a sense of direction and purpose in life. Along with that came dignity and accountability as I had goals to achieve, which meant that I had to stay sober and continue to work hard.”
His favorite classes were the addiction studies classes, followed by psychology classes.
“The curriculum addressed almost every aspect of the field one will encounter, from counseling to recovery coaching, documentation and ethics, and so much more,” he said.
In addition to the certificate in Addiction Studies, Wilkinson also earned an associate degree in pre-psychology and now is considering a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology through Cornerstone University’s program for working adults. And he now works as a recovery coach for a mental health clinic, approaching his one-year anniversary in the position this summer.
He's also getting back in touch with the music that was such a big part of his life as a high school student. A talented saxophonist, he is part of a group that plays at Westminster Presbyterian Church called the "Westminster Winds.”
“We have a lot of talent in the group, including a lot of GVSU music students,” he said with a smile. “It's open to anyone who wants to be a part of it and is a lot of fun.”
And though he recently suffered a bit of a setback when he had to have open heart surgery, he said he’s not about to let this recent medical issue slow him down.
“I sobered up at age 46 and finished my degree at age 49,” he said. “I had set a four-year plan for myself when I sobered up, with the goal of figuring out a new direction in life and building the foundation for it by age 50.
“By the grace of God, it happened with time to spare, both the education and the job. I'll be sober four years in November and continue to live a life of recovery in both AA and my new career.”
This story was reported by Phil de Haan.