Sponsorship

Your sponsor listens. They answer the phone when you are tempted to “just ask one quick thing.” They tell you about the time they asked an AI to write their out-of-office message and it promised clients a reply “within minutes.” They will help you with the steps, at your pace, in person or on the telephone.

Sponsors are not available around the clock in a calm, endlessly patient voice. They have jobs. They have families. They will sometimes miss your call and ring back after their tea. This is not a flaw in the service. This is what a person is.

We are asked this more often than you might think. However supportive it sounds, however quickly it replies, however much it “understands exactly how you feel,” a chatbot cannot be your sponsor. Your sponsor needs to be someone who can, if necessary, turn up at your door with a packet of biscuits and a disappointed expression.

Go to meetings. Listen for someone whose story sounds like yours and whose life now sounds like something you would like. After the meeting, walk up to them and ask. Yes, out loud. Yes, it is awkward. That is rather the point.