I began smoking and drinking while attending art school

Shigeko Hosoki

I began smoking and drinking while attending art school. For twenty years after that, not only was I unable to stop, but I was more and more often at drinking parties, becoming a strong drinker, although I did not get drunk. My friends tried to make me drink until I was intoxicated, and there was no end to this bad cycle.

At Christmastime in 1972, a kind church member took me to a Sunday service at a Church of Christ, Scientist. There I felt my years of questions regarding Christianity were answered. Beginning with the New Year I was privileged to attend the Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings regularly.

During that year several of my problems began to be solved one after another, and I was able to realize God's presence. However, to stop drinking and smoking seemed very difficult. My friends were painters, sculptors, and designers. We drank together a lot; we believed that this was the way to do good work. Some of them even tried drugs. In my case, I drank only to continue my friendships, but my friends began to demand my company at increasingly stimulating activities, and to stop drinking seemed to call for very severe discipline, so I postponed the idea of giving it up.

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