Land Of Sheep

Parents tell their children things like, “You might not want kids now but you’ll regret not having them when you’re older”.  This giant generalization turns out to be rather untrue.  Ironically, a lot of what our culture and parents tell us we should do might turn out to be the decisions we regret most.

Here are 4 decisions that people regret most:

1.  Marrying the wrong person

Around two thirds of marriages nowadays will end up in divorce.   Of the ones that stay together, a good % suck big time.  Being married to someone you find limiting, irritating, and or sexually undesirable is unfortunately the rule rather than the exception.

2.  Choosing the wrong career

Your career is what you spend a huge chunk of your adult waking life doing.  Forget about how much money you make doing it for one second.  If you don’t like it, QUIT!  Money is certainly a major factor to consider when choosing a career, but make sure your enjoy your life doing whatever you do.  It doesn’t matter how cool your mom feels when she says, “Well, my son’s a doctor you know”.

3.  An unhealthy lifestyle

Unfortunately, many people don’t realize this one until they are diagnosed with some life-threatening illness.  Take care of yourself.  If you haven’t been doing it, start now.

4.  Not traveling

Does your whole life take place in a 50 km radius?  That’s pretty sad if it’s true.  When people look back on their lives, they regret not seeing the world.  90 year old people never say, “I wish I saved my money and didn’t waste it on that stupid trip when I was 30″

I hope this article sheds some light onto what actually happens when a teen is faced with some peer pressure to try drugs.

Most adults are clueless about this situation. They think that teens are “pressured” into trying drugs, and they only try them to “fit in” or “be cool”. Parents and teachers try to scare teens about the dangers of drugs, what they call, “the truth about drugs” in hopes that this will cause the teen to think twice before taking drugs. Well, this method works to a degree, and then it totally backfires. Let’s find out how exactly.

When kids are exposed to the horrors of drugs, it does frighten them. I remember when I was in school, I swore I’d never try any. I fought with my dad because he smoked cigarettes and I was totally convinced that anyone who even tried drugs was totally ridiculous. This is how all my friends felt too. Then we turned 15. (It happens younger now). I wasn’t a dare devil in school. I would have never been the first one to try drugs. But, like all kids, I knew people who had tried them.

I went to parties and I saw people smoking pot and snorting cocaine. I wasn’t interested at all. No one was really pressuring me to try any either. They’d ask if I wanted some, and when I said no they didn’t make a big deal about it. Maybe a friendly joke but nothing annoying at all. They respected my decision.

As time went on I saw more and more of it. My friends who were taking drugs were having fun. No one was getting addicted to them. They still played well in sports and still did well in school. I noticed that the “truth about drugs” was hardly the truth at all. They were scare tactics. I felt confused and cheated. The education I’d received was nonsense. Drugs weren’t as horrible as I was told. I lost faith in the education system with regards to drugs and started asking my friends for their own opinions. After all, they’d tried them, they knew.

They all said they weren’t nearly as big a deal as the adult world was making them out to be. I believed my friends. I could see with my own eyes they were right. They recommended trying a little bit at first, just for the feeling. Then I watched them try much more than I’d be taking. I wasn’t scared anymore. I was curious. I tried a little. I liked the feeling. They were right. It wasn’t that big a deal.

The next day I woke up feeling fine. I wasn’t at all addicted to the drugs. The only surprise was the realization that the education system likes to use propaganda to scare us. I made sure the next time I heard their advice I’d take it with a grain of salt.

Since my first experience with drugs, I’ve “convinced” many other people to try them.

The conversation would go something like this:

ME: Hey, you should try a little of this. I think you’d like it.

FRIEND: No thanks. I don’t want to get addicted. I was just talking about this with my dad tonight.

ME: I used to feel the exact same way. Then I realized that I didn’t know anyone getting addicted to drugs. I didn’t know anyone who’d overdosed either. All the people I saw doing them were just having fun. I realized they weren’t that big a deal and decided to try a little. I don’t take them more than once a month now. Obviously doing them everyday would be bad, but once in a while is no problem.

FRIEND: That’s true. Come to think of it I don’t know many people with major drug problems either. And all my friends have tried them too. I don’t really feel that curious though.

ME: Well then don’t have any. I’m just saying that it’s no big deal either way. If I were you I’d try just a little to get the idea. Then you can stop. Obviously, you won’t get addicted

(then they’d watch me take much more then I’d give them and see that I was totally fine)

FRIEND: Ok. What the hell. Just give me like 1 quarter of what you just had. Then that’s it.

ME: Ok.

Done. That’s how it happens. Most teens start off scared, then slowly come to realize that what they were told in schools was an exaggeration. Then the teen decides to try a little. A lot of the reason is because the adults lost their credibility.

Lesson to be learned:

Don’t exaggerate about the dangers of drugs. Of course the dangers are real, but if you exaggerate, teens will sooner or later figure this out and then they won’t believe anything you say after. And the worst part of this is not that your teen tried drugs. It’s that your teen realized that you are a less accurate source of information than his friends.