i guess my brother can blow his moeny on shoes, but i can’t on a sixty dollar tattoo. okay, real cool mom. 

It’s about that time again. Those that smoke are considerate of the nonsmokers. Smokers stand on the opposite way where the wind blows to not blow smoke in the non-smokers face. Most of all smokers know the distance to stand. Everything has a certain distance to stand. Growing up, parents tell their young children to stay out of harm’s way. The parents do not want their child to share some experiences people should never experience and also the new experiments that come with growing up. Experience is the best teacher.

Raging hormones cause teenagers to question what is right and what is wrong. Hormones power the super ego of the brain. Super ego wants please acutely and a good time. But, there is a need to stop and think sex could possible harm your entire life. When my mom was talking to my older brother, Kyle, about sex and he said, “That shit will kill you.” While this being said, there is irony in this statement. My oldest brother, Jeff, was a living statistic having a carefree, spontaneous lifestyle. My brother contracted HIV/AIDS the year I was born. He was unable to get rid of a pretty nasty case of pneumonia. This is what most AIDS patients go through when they discover they have HIV/AIDS. There is this thing called thrush, and it is in the throat. My brother also had that. He went to the doctor and kept getting tested and tested. Finally, the shocking truth came out. There went his life. There were soccer. There went his scholarship. Once again, there went his life. Fifty-one percent of parents will talk to their kids about sex and condoms. But, what about the other fifty-eight percent? The topic never seems to open up. My brother’s disease caused awareness to my parent’s eyes. Sex was open in my family. It was spoken about unlike most kids my age that wouldn’t dare talk to their parents that way.

Drugs. Drug use. Getting high. Getting stoned! Whatever one may call it parents don’t want their child doing drugs. It still happens. Teen strive for independence. It might start with a cigarette. It might be marijuana, or weed. It could be alcohol. Some teens first experience with drugs could be with cocaine or heroin. Freshmen year, I remember a girl tell me she wouldn’t smoke weed, but her first time getting high was with heroin. Things like this wouldn’t shock most kids today. Experience is the best teacher. Teens are finding more and more ways of escape. Escape from this or that, teens are finding it.

            Over ten percent are thought to experiment with self-mutilation. Teens show pain they do not talk about, or find a positive way of coping. They do say, “experience is the best teacher,” but some experiences should not happen. Teens self-mutilate for many different reasons. It could because they like the pain due to being numb. It could be because of childhood trauma or any recent trauma that one many need to block or talk about. Also, self-mutilation mayn happen because they enjoy the site of blood. Self-mutilation is not a joke. It hurts the ones doing it and the ones that love the persons well-beigh. It leads to suicide. It leads to pain. There are many reasons why teens do they things they do. But, this is the time one may reach out and give a hand. All one needs to do is listen to every word, every sigh, and every muffled breath.

Back in the seventh grade, there was this girl I knew. She was very energetic. She seemed very optimistic on the outside. But, the things many others did not know about the girl is every night she would go home and cut. It was like a ritual like a heroin addict shots up heroin. Cutting is that deep. There was many reasons as to why this girl hurt her self the way she did. She learned her dad had lung cancer, and may not have time to live. He lived a state away. He pushed her away from seeing him because he didn’t want his daughter to see him weak. This wasn’t like her dad. Her dad always forced the vistitation whether the situation might be. This girl was worried about her dad. How many girls get their dad to see them off to prom? How many girls get their dad to walk them down the aisle at their wedding? How many girls get their dad to hold their first grandchild from their daughter? That could of not been her dad. Her dad was sick, and his life was on the line. This girl also had many other things going on. Fights at home never mend a broken heart. The question between quitting what she was doing to harm herself. Her parents knew, she pleaded with them not to make her to go to counseling. Enough was enough! She went through with it, and never did she fully tell people why.

Eighth grade came, and it just got worse. This girl got raped. Her virginity was taken by a selfish sixteen year old that couldn’t for a second think what this young girl wanted. She went through with pressing charges, but the police looked at her as a white trash suburban girl. Her story wasn’t heard. She wasn’t prepared for the things she had to deal with. Cutting herself escladed. It soon led to an overdose. Her mom had no idea what to do. This girl was on an emotional rollercoaster. She went to hell and back, and she still stood smiling everyday. But, what people did not know about her was she was dealing with the hardest thing any grown woman would have to deal with her. Her sanity was taken. And, it would take a while for her to feel at ease for it to get back. It took years, but she finally got it. This girl lives, breaths, and smiles today like nothing happened yesterday. Her story was still kept a secret. She was finally alive, again. Self-mutilation is not a joke. People need to reach out to those. Don’t feel bad for telling someone of authority or help, that person may hate you today for it but tomorrow she will appreciate it.

Teenage years are crazy enough. There is a distance to go. And, there is a time and place for everything. As teens begin to find out for themselves what things are really like, they will realize what their parents were trying to do their entire life. To save them. But, you can’t save anyone if they don’t want to save themselves. That is why experience is the best teacher. It creates ways to correct future situations. The distance will be found of how far to really go eventually. The stories will be great to tell the grandchildren after all.

but i realized a bunch of things. im bout to be a freaking adult. i spent majority of my life wishing i was older. i was constantly wanting something but now that it is here. im not quite sure what to do. i think im just going to play it as it comes. lucy shouldnt have to show me this.