Back in high school, my girlfriend’s coworker was dating a guy who had joined Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). I met him and remember him showing me the plastic key chains that he had collected for each month of sobriety. He had been sober for six months and he showed me his key chains with pride.

At the time, I didn’t really understand how important those key chains were to him, and only later in life did I meet others who had similar achievements in AA.