Drugs limit your future choices

Editor's note: Stephanie Smith's fictional essay took first place in the annual Teens Against Substance Abuse Campaign sponsored by the Spokane Advertising Federation.

Everything changed that night. My whole life turned upside down. Now nothing is the same. Everything is different. I'm still not sure if it's terrible or if it's just bad. I do know that I wish it had never happened.

If I had just listened to my parents' voices or even my friends' voices repeating over and over again in my head, maybe I would've come to my senses soon enough to prevent this disaster from taking place. That one night changed everything, but the sad and pathetic thing is, I can't remember anything that happened. All I know about it is how serious the results are. Now I'm stuck here, 14 years old, with a baby and no one to help.

The one poor choice I made that night, the choice to smoke pot, helped produce the "mistake" that I am now going to be caring for, for the rest of my life. I just hope that I can get through to my daughter and make her understand how stupid pot makes a person. Nothing is worth it. Especially not the future. Especially not her future. I wish I had known that then. Maybe I still would have a chance at the future I wanted. Now I know that the opportunities I had hoped for will never be. I just hope she'll understand before she throws her future out the window.

She still has a chance. I hope she realizes how valuable that chance is.

Copyright 2003 Cowles Publishing Company
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