I have a new boss...again. This is my 3rd boss in under 6 months, mind you I have not changed jobs. (Maybe I stink?)
Anyway, we were talking today about the company she came here from (another high profile Insurance Company) and I mentioned my Uncle's name since he works there. Well as it turns out she knows my him. Not from the company though, because she grew up in the same neighborhood as my Mom and her siblings. She also knows a child hood friend of mines father, because his family also grew up in that neighborhood. Funny you never really do know who you will work for one day....
She was asking about my Mom's younger brother, she has 4 brothers all are younger. One of which has struggled with drugs his entire life. I believe he began using heroin when in Vietnam, and well, he never lost the taste for it. I guess he was her boyfriend when they were adolescents. It always makes me sad to have to talk about one of my relatives or child hood friends that have made the choice in their lives that has lead them to heroin.
I am generally a "To each his own" kind of gal..but when it comes to drugs, not so much. I agree addiction is a disease, a disease that is one of the most difficult diseases to overcome. Especially since you really can't take a pill to get better (heck taking the pills could be what got you there!) But i also strongly feel that taking drugs to begin with is a choice. it is a decision that you make on your own. And once you make that decision, it very well may become a disease.
It saddens me most because I have witnessed the destruction drugs have.
Drugs, to me, have both positively and negatively impacted me and my life.
I became the strong willed, fierce, intelligent woman I am today because of the choices my loved ones made in their lives. I was fortunate enough to watch as the people I cared for suffered with addiction because of their choices. I could have made a different choice when I was a teenager, I could have snorted that line at the keg party, I could have smoked the glass pipe with the crystal in it in the basement of my friends house, I could have tried that one shot of H at the river...but as I said before..I was fortunate enough to open my eyes to my surroundings and see the suffering taking place.
At the same time I was making these "right decisions for me" I was losing my dearest and most beloved friends to drugs. I tried to help, I tried to be the one to lead them in another direction, but there was nothing I could do once they found their new best friend.
Since graduating high school 13 years ago I have lost 3 friends to drug overdoses, 1 friend was killed in prison, at least 3 that currently walk the streets selling their bodies for trade in drugs or money for drugs.
There is an artist out there...Holly Williams, she has a song "Would you still have fallen" this song brings me to tears every time I listen to it since so many of my friends have fallen.
Have you ever fallen? How did you get up again? Do you have someone in your life that if you could be the angel on their shoulder you would be?
2 comments:
On my blog if you read the post titled "what drugs do to you" you will see I TOTALLY relate!! You aren't alone girl!
Addictions (mostly drugs but some alcohol) run rampant in my family with my uncles. I watched them screw up their lives all these years and that is what keeps me strong and smart and keeps me addiction free. I, too, could have given in to peer pressure but I knew what I wanted out of life...and it was NOT drugs and addiction! It's so very sad to me as their lives continue to implode and what's even sadder is that I expect them to either overdose or go to jail. that's a crappy way to feel about a family member but I'm a realist.
Good for you for "saying no"!
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