Bryan Hullihen's Story

Bryan Hullihen spent the majority of his free time while living at Born Anew either at 12-step meetings or surfing on Palm Beach Island. Mr. Hullihen talks about that time of his life with such warm regard and recalls the simplicity of working a humble job, going to 12-step meetings, and surfing in one of the nicest places in the country as his primary focuses. Bryan got a job working for an extremely wealthy woman who lived on Palm Beach Island about a half-mile from Donald Trump's Resort/house. This particular woman owned a commercial real estate business and hired Bryan initially to simply do a couple odds and ends but ended up hiring him on full-time after a single week. She knew Bryan was an alcoholic in recovery and since she had a close relative that suffered from addiction, she wanted to help Bryan however she could. Bryan was extremely grateful for this opportunity because it allowed him to focus on recovery from his alcoholism while feeling valued by someone as success

At 18 years old Bryan Hullihen entered into the sober living program called "Born Anew" which was located in an extremely rough part of West Palm Beach. Bryan had no vehicle at the time, no job, and had no idea how to overcome his insatiable desire to drink alcohol. Born Anew was a program which consisted of three neighboring houses that all shared one big backyard where there was a gazebo and an office. The gazebo was very large and is where most of the meetings centered around recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction took place. This program was for males only and between the three houses there were about 20 members of the program. The first several days Bryan was not allowed to leave the program grounds and he was given certain tasks and chores to accomplish to help him stay busy and learn a little humility. Around 5:00 in the evening all the other members of the program would return home from their jobs and, following dinner, would join together in the gazebo for rec

For several more years Bryan Hullihen continued to experiment with drugs and drink alcohol while his behavior became increasingly more unstable due to his continued substance abuse. Bryan spent most of his time during this phase of his life with his girlfriend, his stepbrother, and his stepbrother’s girlfriend. Although Bryan was only 17 he drank more alcohol than most 21-year olds and he lived his life as if it were a perpetual party. The beginning of the end for this way of life for the young Mr. Hullihen occurred one night while camping with those who Bryan spent most of his time with. Bryan and his friends had been drinking all night while camping on an island when around midnight they had run out of beer. Not wanting the party to end Bryan took his friend’s boat back to the marina where his vehicle was parked and headed off to the store to buy more alcohol. Bryan ended up at the beach as his friend’s birthday party was ending and he hoped to catch his friend to wish him a happy

Bryan Hullihen lived at his father’s house for one year before moving back to his mother’s in Jupiter, FL. When Bryan got home and settled in he recalls feeling as though many of his friends and children he grew up with moved on without him. Bryan states: “Many of the kids I knew went on to for new social groups and people seemed to act differently. It was a strange feeling because I felt as though I no longer truly fit in with all the kids I grew up with. It was like I had to make friends with my friends all over again." It didn't take Mr. Hullihen long to settle back into life in Jupiter and soon after his return he was doing well in school and being a kid at home. Bryan spent much of his free time fishing, surfing, and skating with his friends and, for the most part, did very well up until his sophomore year in high school. It was around this time that Bryan and his family moved to his stepfather's house in a part of Jupiter called Jupiter Farms. Moving to "the f

Bryan Hullihen was only 13 years old when he began smoking pot. Growing up in a beach community like Jupiter, Florida provided an abundance of opportunity for this kind of behavior and a level of social acceptance that made it easy for Bryan to justify it. Many of Bryan's friends smoked pot and drank and it wasn't long until most of the social engagements were centered around drinking or getting high. At this point in Bryan Hullihen 's life he lived in two worlds where one realm demanded that he do well in school and perform in sports and the other had him surfing, skating, fighting, and getting high. Before long school began to become an inconvenience and Mr. Hullihen's attendance dropped so low that he had "incompletes" for grades which was worse than F's if you can imagine that. Bryan wanted to do well and knew that his life would go nowhere if he didn't pull up out of this nosedive. Bryan also knew that his father could, and would, provide him wi

Bryan Hullihen and his sister Heather walked into the hospital room to find their father with 200 stitches in his face, a broken left arm, broken left leg, all ribs on his left side broken, and a collapsed lung. He was barely conscious when the two young kids walked in but he recognized his children and as his head rolled over to one side a young Bryan Hullihen recalls observing a tear fall from his father's eye and roll down a severely shredded up face. Heather began crying uncontrollably and left the room after a short time to meet her brother in the hall. Not much was said that day but they both knew the realities of this terrible situation. They both knew that all of them were suffering. Mom, Dad, Heather, and Bryan were feeling the burden of a broken home due to one man's alcoholism. Bryan Hullihen began spending more time at the hospital as his father began to heal. The hospital held Mr. Hullihen, due to an infection that developed in his leg, longer than the 6 w

By the time Bryan Hullihen was settled into his new school and making his way through the fourth grade Christmas had arrived. This was to be young Bryan Hullihen 's first Christmas following his parents’ divorce and his mother did everything she could to make it a great one for him and his sister. Bryan remembers how he and his sister were so happy on that particular Christmas morning as they opened all of their gifts to realize they were given every single thing they asked for. The fact that their mother still was not earning a lot of money but somehow figured out how to provide for her children in such an extravagant way is testament to the love and support that Bryan and his sister knew as kids. Around 8:00 in the morning that Christmas the phone rang and Bryan knew in an instant something was wrong. His mother rushed into one of the bedrooms where she could be heard crying hysterically through the entire house. After several minutes Christine emerged calling Bryan and his si

Bryan Hullihen's first day of school in the new town was both filled with excitement and events that set his reputation off to a pretty good start as far as Bryan was concerned. Bryan had just spent the entire summer with his new friend Chris and they grew very close over that time. Chris was a chubby kid and not very athletic and being from out of town the previous year some of the older kids would make fun of him. Bryan had no idea Chris had gone through that as Chris hid it from the young Mr. Hullihen. Bryan and Chris rode the bus together and when they pulled into school Bryan could plainly see that his friend was scared. Chris finally explained to Bryan that on the last day of school the previous year three boys that were older than him tried to beat him up and he barely escaped to his bus without incident. The three boys told Chris they’d get him on the first day of school after summer and, sure enough, they were waiting for him at the bus loop that morning. Bryan Hullihen

When Bryan Hullihen was 9 years old his mother moved he and his sister Heather to Jupiter, FL. According to Mr. Hullihen: ''Jupiter was a paradise and we live right on the beach. The schools, people, businesses, streets, everything was nicer than where we lived before”.  Bryan Hullihen moved to Jupiter, FL during the summer between his third and fourth grade year and he made many friends during that summer. Bryan spent most of his time with his new friend Chris, two sisters named Joanna and Juliet, and their friend Angela. Living in such a nice area afforded these young kids a lot of freedoms and most of their free time was spent swimming in pools, riding bicycles, or hanging out at the beach. For the most part they hung out together all the time. Joanna and Juliet were new to Jupiter, FL as well and they arrived there from South Africa the same summer as Bryan. Chris was also fairly new to the area as he moved there from West Virginia at the end of the previous school year.

Following Bryan Hullihen ’s matriculation to private school and his subsequent improvement in his grades he began to make friends in his new school. Being that Bryan was attending a school where tuition was required many of the children that attended this institution came from wealthy families. Up to this point in Mr. Hullihen’s life he had no understanding of socioeconomic differences and had little exposure to people of wealth. One thing that Bryan understood was that there were different ways of behaving with the children he went to school with and the children whom he played with at home in his neighborhood. The children at Bryan Hullihen ’s school were well behaved and talked through their differences where back in Bryan’s neighborhood the opposite was the case. In a very real way at only eight years old Bryan learned how to be two people. In school he was interested in learning how to associate with people of means and at home he had to learn how to be tough and handle himself p

When Bryan Hullihen was seven years old he and his family moved to Lake Worth, FL which is about fifteen minutes north of Ft. Lauderdale. This was Bryan’s first experience with what most would consider “city life”. Up to that point Bryan had only lived in a small agricultural town of Florida. Bryan was an honor role student prior to moving to “the city” and when his first report card from the new school came his parents were less than happy. Bryan brought home a report card of three - F’s, three - D’s, and one – C. At this point in Bryan’s life his mother was still a stay at home mom so his father was the only income which meant there was not a lot of extra money in the home. This didn’t stop Mr. Hullihen’s father from enrolling Bryan into private school the day after he brought home that report card.   Bryan Hullihen and his father developed a study plan together to help Bryan improve his grades and they worked on it together every day. Within a few short weeks Bryan’s grades retur

Bryan Hullihen was born in 1978 in a small town just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Hullihen had an older sister named Heather and his parents were Bryan and Christine. Bryan’s father had a small business in the steel industry which, due to the influx of Japanese steel to the U.S. in the 70’s, went under when Bryan was only one-year old. In 1981 Bryan Hullihen and his family moved to south Florida where his father was offered a job running a steel mill, however, when they arrived at their new town Bryan’s father was given the news that the mill would be closing and the job was no longer available. Bryan’s father was very traditional and he wanted his children’s mother to be home with the kids so he commenced to work three jobs in order to provide for his family. Even though Bryan’s father was extremely busy Bryan remembers his family being together every day for dinner and his father reading to him at night before bed. Bryan and his sister Heather were only two years apart in age w