Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin was 16 years old and sitting in the back seat of the car as it careened off the road at 65 miles per hour and slammed into a tree.
She bit through her tongue during the crash and was bleeding, but had no plans to stick around and wait for firefighters and EMTs to arrive. With drugs and alcohol still coursing through her veins, Andrea climbed out of the twisted wreckage that had been her friend’s car and disappeared into the night.
A day later she was in handcuffs.
Andrea, now 23 years old, said her parents had tracked her down following the crash and brought her to Rhode Island Family Court seeking guidance from Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah. Andrea said she had seen Judge Jeremiah during prior incidents and felt like he was sympathetic to her situation, but on the day she arrived he was not there. Instead a different judge heard her case and ordered police to put her in handcuffs.
“The judge told me I was a threat to the town of Barrington,” she said. “I had two choices: I could go to the training school or to the Caritas House.”
Andrea chose Caritas House, a rehabilitation facility in Cranston, but the five-month stint (and additional two months in an outpatient program) brought the young Barrington girl no closer to sobriety.
For about seven years, Andrea struggled with drug addiction, charting new low-points every few months — she dropped out of school, she nearly overdosed on ecstasy in the basement of an East Providence apartment; she stole from friends and family to feed her habit; she lied to everyone.
But Andrea caught a break two months before her 18th birthday: she was locked up at the training school and told that her next stop was likely the ACI.
She lay on the floor of her cell and thought about what she had done, who she hurt and where she was headed, and she wept. And then she listened.
“I experienced God … and His grace, and His mercy,” she said.
It was a turning point, the turning point, for young Andrea Martin, who recently graduated from Rhode Island College *** laude with two bachelor degrees (dance, and performing arts management), a certificate in non-profit studies, and a minor in international nongovernmental organizations. Her new path has included creating her own style of yoga, writing a book, and opening her own yoga studio. She is also planning to open a holistic wellness center in Westport, Mass. in the coming months.
Most important, she is sober.
“I’m so excited about what’s happening,” she said during a recent interview. “It’s all about having a purpose.”
Andrea created her own form of yoga, called Selah. Here she performs the dead man’s pose.
Andrea said the wellness center in Westport — she has been using a space at the New Hope Church in Swansea, Mass. — will include a space for her yoga studio and an organic spa, a vegan café and juice bar. The center is an extension of how she now lives, naturally.
“Fun for me now is playing Scrabble with my grandmother… and that’s great,” she said.
In the beginning…
Andrea had been a good student when she was younger — a very good student.
Her report card was filled with As and she loved going to class. She enjoyed reading and spending time with her friends, but things changed when she was about 12 years old.
“I have an older brother, and I always hung out with him and his crowd,” she said. And when her brother and his friends started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, so too did Andrea. Before long the substance abuse became a regular part of her life and her routine.
When her family moved from Seekonk to Barrington, Andrea, then in the eighth grade, quickly fell in with a group of kids who also liked to party. They smoked. They drank. They skipped school.
Andrea said she can remember the days when her father would drop her off for class at Barrington High School, and once he pulled his car away from the curb she would duck back out of the building with her friends.
“Mr. Hurley would chase us,” Andrea said of high school principal Joe Hurley. “He would get in his car and try to get us back to school.
“I just didn’t get it. I just wanted to hang out.”
Hanging out meant drugs — alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and other opiates. Andrea did not discriminate. “I did everything.”
She said her dependency on substances, which began as something to do with friends, later became a necessary distraction from what she was doing to love ones. She knew how badly she was hurting her parents.
“I think I was severely depressed,” Andrea said. “I didn’t want to think about what I was doing to my parents, to other people.”
Andrea dropped out of school and left her home. She moved into an apartment in East Providence with four men and continued to use drugs. She was 16 years old and constantly in trouble with the police.
One night she went out with her boyfriend and another teenager. They had been drinking and smoking and were in her boyfriend’s friend’s car as it sped down a darkened street in Barrington. The speedometer pushed 55, and then 60, and then 65. And then the car slipped off the road and plowed into a massive tree.
Andrea, who had been sitting in the backseat and not wearing a seatbelt was catapulted inside the cab of the car, slamming into the seats and windows. She bit through her tongue and began to spit blood. Her boyfriend injured both his knees in the wreck, but amazingly, no one was killed.
Her boyfriend’s friend urged the others to run, so they did.
That night, police officers founds the smashed car and charged the driver. Then they began searching for Andrea and her boyfriend. They went to Andrea’s parents’ house and knocked on the front door. It was late, and her parents thought the worst when they saw the police and heard the words: “Your daughter was in an accident.”
They learned about the crash and then helped track down Andrea at another house. The next morning Andrea was brought to Family Court, and a short time later found herself at Caritas House.
“I hated it there,” she said. “I hated every second of it.”
After five and a half months at Caritas, she was released, but continued with the out-patient program for another two months. She was drug-tested throughout.
She returned to Barrington High School and was, within hours of her return to normal life, smoking marijuana again. She told herself she would only smoke pot and drink — no hard drugs, she promised herself. It was another lie.
Again, Andrea stopped going to school and returned to harder drugs. She actually showed up at the high school on a Saturday morning to take her SATs, but was completely high on drugs. Test proctors threw her out of the building.
Partying consumed her, and nearly killed her. One night at a house in East Providence, Andrea decided to take some ecstasy. “They were these little Obama heads,” she said, about the pills. “They were brown and cute. They were dope-heavy.”
She took some, and waited for the high. “It seemed like nothing was happening,” she said. So she took some more — smashing them up and snorting them.
“Then everything hit,” she said. “I was all messed up.”
Andrea remembers nearly overdosing. A friend stayed with her the entire night to make sure she survived.
Another run-in with the police a short while later landed Andrea back in Family Court. The judge sent her to the training school — she was two months shy of her 18th birthday, and, if officials could not find funding to place her in a rehab facility in Vermont, then her next stop would be the ACI.
“They told me they had grounds to put me in the adult prison, in the ACI,” she said.
But Andrea caught one last break when the state found her a spot at Bennington School in Vermont.
The road back …
Andrea spent about seven months living at Bennington School and quickly progressed in her treatment.
Within two weeks, her roommate tried to commit suicide. Andrea walked into the bathroom during the attempt and saved her roommate. She also took on some leadership roles at the school — “I ended up being a motherly figure toward other girls.”
She graduated from high school and filled her days with skiing, snowshoeing, horseback riding and other activities. She met with counselors and attended AA and NA meetings. Her free time was very limited.
The counselors helped Andrea how to live life sober.
She transitioned to a sober house in Newport and began a new life. She found part-time work at a pizza place, began taking classes at night, and closed out her old social media accounts. It was a new life … and it was working for Andrea.
“I got a better job at a Starbucks and then at 22 Bowens. I was going to school full-time at CCRI. I had meetings every day,” she said.
Every now and then, an old friend would track down Andrea and ask if she wanted to hang out. She knew that meant drugs, so politely she said she had moved on from that part of her life.
She eventually transferred to Rhode Island College and found more work at Waterman Grille in Providence’s East Side.
It was in Newport when Andrea focused on yoga. She had always loved dancing and found the physical nature of yoga very rewarding. The spiritual aspect of yoga, however, presented some challenges. She started Selah — the Biblical alternative to yoga — began offering classes inside a space at the New Hope Church in Swansea, Mass.
“Every posture is rooted in Bible verse,” she said. “It is a whole mental and physical experience.”
Andrea, who has been living in Barrington with her mother, has recently found a new focus as she puts her 100-page business plan in motion to open a nonprofit wellness center in Westport, Mass. She is working with a property owner and has a vision for opening more wellness centers in the future.
Andrea said she sees the wellness center as her chance to help others. She knows her past is filled with a unpleasant experiences, but also understands that she would not be where she is if not for her past challenges.
“I guess I’m grateful,” she said.
Points of pride
• In her first year at Rhode Island College, Andrea Martin auditioned for the RIC Dance Company and won a dance scholarship. Her choreography was featured at the 2015 American College Dance Association New England conference.
• During her recovery, she began the practice of yoga, and from it she created a Christian alternative to the Eastern practice of yoga. Her technique is called Selah yoga, which integrates the mind, body and spirit, using a Christian meditative practice. In 2013 Martin began teaching Selah yoga as a recovery tool at Caritas, Inc., a substance abuse treatment facility for teens.
• In 2014, Andrea raised more than $10,000 to establish Selah Yoga as an official business entity, holding classes in a space at New Hope Christian Church in Swansea, Mass. Today she is working on a business plan to expand the business to a full holistic wellness center that provides discounted services for the underserved.
• Andrea Martin is a teen leader/worship leader at New Hope Christian Church, facilitating between 20 and 30 teenagers in group discussions and relating their discussions to Christian teachings. “Many of these teens come specifically to open up to us,” she said.
• In 2015, Andrea Martin was honored with the Rhode Island College Student Leadership Award, in the category of “Vital Contribution to the Community,” for demonstrating that a community can be transformed through leadership and involvement.
• Said RIC Professor of Dance Angelica Cardente-Vessella of Andrea Martin: “I have watched with great admiration and pride as, Andrea, this young chrysalis, became a beautiful and free butterfly.”