LEARNING FROM MISTAKES OF OTHERS

When I was in elementary school, teachers always warned us about drugs, but
we never had to face others and turn them away.

We all said we would never do anything that stupid that could harm us in
that way, but people change, and they end up doing things without thinking
them all the way through.

Personally, I never really had to deal with drugs as a big part of my life
until middle school.

I had a few friends that did drugs, and I never really thought anything
about it, because I wasn't the one doing drugs and none of my friends ever
had any negative experiences with them.

I thought everything would always be OK with my friends as long as I didn't
do drugs, but one weekend when I was in seventh grade my friends and I went
out and I saw two or three of my best friends come inside already very
drunk. Then in the bathroom they were doing a drug called acid and drinking
whiskey along with it.

Two of the three were OK, but one of my friends couldn't even walk to the
front of the building. My friend passed out in the middle of the building
and was rushed to the emergency room. Another one of my friends rode to the
hospital with him and called every few minutes with updates on how he was
doing.

He had to have his stomach pumped several times and his heart stopped
beating twice. Everybody was starting to give up on him because he was in
the ICU for about three weeks.

He finally did make a full recovery, and he has been drug-free ever since.
After seeing how badly he and his family and I were affected by what had
happened, I decided that I would never be the kind of person who risks
everything good I had just to feel good and get a high for a few hours.
Look how much you really could lose.

Maxie Foster is a member of The Sun Herald Teen Board. She is a 14-year-old
D'Iberville High School student.