Hi, This is Lisa from Washington, DC. Welcome to AbovetheInfluence.com and thanks for stopping in. Jen is back doing another podcast with us today. She talks about going to parties and having fun without all the pressure to do drugs and drink. Listen up, she’s got a lot to say.
I wasn’t ignorant to the fact that my parents were abusing drugs, or that people around me were abusing drugs. I was smart…quick. Partly because I was educated in high school or middle school about drugs, and partly because I saw different crazy things and they frightened me. As I got older I started to realize that the things they were doing were drugs or over-drinking.
And my parents’ personalities, and their whole sense of self — I just started seeing it disappear. They started turning into different people and it pained me to see that, and I had to grow up quick and I had to be my own parent and to look out for my sister and my younger sister had to look out for me, and I had to look out for my parents as well. So it was very difficult to see that but it wasn’t difficult for me to say no to drugs because I saw that.
And a lot of people will ask me ‘how can you say no if they haven’t seen those types of things?’ I don’t know what exactly to say to that except that you can learn from other mistakes, and that’s what I did. If you think about the mistakes that people around you make and it doesn’t matter who they are but people make mistakes everywhere and you can see them and you educate yourself and you learn, then you can make the right choices and you know when your conscience is telling you something that isn’t right to do.
I think there’s a lot of danger that people don’t realize when drinking at parties, especially when you’re in high school and your friends aren’t necessarily looking out for you as much and you’re all just there and doing these things or people around you are doing these things. I remember one of the first parties I ever went to there was this girl, it was like my freshman year. This girl was drinking and it was probably her first time drinking and she got really drunk very quickly and guys were just laughing at her and making a joke of her. And it was sad, because yes, she was getting attention but it’s wasn’t good because people were picking her up and carrying her around. I distinctly remember this moment because I never want to be that girl who was being laughed at who decided to drink to feel more comfortable or to do whatever everyone else is doing, and she was just being laughed at.
In one sense I felt sorry for her, in other sense I felt odd myself. I was tempted to drink and I was tempted to kill the edge. But I was very glad I didn’t because I didn’t know how I’d react in that situation if I had drank that much and people were carrying me around and laughing at me and I never want to be that girl. It was hard because it was kind of a big joke and the pressure is there but I think you have to watch out for yourself and your friends have to look out for you. When you go to parties, and I did in high school, and there’s nothing wrong with that and you have to make sure you make the right choices while you’re there. Not everyone is drinking and /not everyone is smoking. Sometimes I was one of the only people [not drinking] but I found solace in the fact that I could “fit away” from everyone. I liked being “not like” everyone else, I liked being different. That’s where I felt good and that’s where I felt myself because everyone is different. You know.
Heh, this is Lisa thanks for listening to today’s podcast. Check back again soon to hear more about Jacob and his point of view. If you want to be featured, visit the podcast section on AbovetheInfluence.com for more on how to do that.