|
Got Weed?
"I didn’t make a conscious decision not to follow in my friends’ footsteps. My mom is a big reason why. She never had to give me the 'sex, drugs and alcohol' talk – she simply told me she trusted me. "
By Ankitha Bharadwaj
Listen
to this Commentary!
Since she started high school, Youth Radio’s Ankitha Bharadwaj has grown apart from many of her middle school friends because of the social decisions they’ve made. While her old friends come to class intoxicated, Ankitha's gone the opposite direction and buckled down in school - taking advanced classes and choosing not to party. In this reflection, Ankitha tells her tale of taking the academic road less traveled.
Looking back, I think my friends and I lost our innocence in our freshman year of high school, as we saw more and more of our peers coming to class intoxicated.
Some of my old middle school friends succumbed to the pressure to get high and drunk, and that changed our relationships. One friend and I used to spend hours on the phone talking about books, TV, movies...anything. But after he started using drugs, our conversations didn’t seem to engage him anymore. I was kind of frustrated, and I wanted to ask, “Do you really need all this stuff to keep you happy when you have friends to engage you in intellectual conversation, which you used to be interested in?”
Now he and I are at a point where we just acknowledge each other in the hallways with an insignificant wave.
I didn’t make a conscious decision not to follow in my friends’ footsteps. My mom is a big reason why. She never had to give me the “sex, drugs and alcohol” talk – she simply told me she trusted me. Since my dad passed away twelve years ago, my mom is all I have and I don’t want to disappoint her.
My decision is also rooted within my culture. As an Indian, education is HUGE for me. Despite having a comfortable life in India, my mom accepted a job in America in order to provide me with academic opportunities not available back home – opportunities I don’t want to waste.
As a result, I’ve been taking advanced classes where I’ve bonded with other students who have the same desire to do well academically – a passion that doesn’t resonate with some of my old friends. I’d be lying if I said I don’t miss them. But I no longer question their decisions, and they respect my choice to stay sober too.
Sometimes I’ll go visit a park those friends and I used to run around in as kids. I miss playing tag with them among the trees, and I reminisce about the times when all we had to worry about was why N’Sync broke up. I know the innocence of our middle school days is gone, but it’s still nice to go back to that park and pretend to be a kid again.
|
|
