1/3
When I first started drinking it was always a social thing. I looked at it like this: I knew who the cool guys were in school, at parties, around town, they weren't the guys using "drugs". At this point when I say drugs it's really only marijuana, obviously I knew of the harder shit, but it wasn't really around, and if it was then it wasn't talked about....out of sight out of mind. Potheads" as I called them, well, actually I still do, were just what you'd expect....parents who were either too busy to notice, too fucked up to care, or had their own heads so far up their collective superior asses that "they KNOW what druggies look like" and "their" kid isn't one of "THEM". Well, Guess What Parents, Teachers, Coaches, Guys, Girls, Aunts, Uncle's and whoever else is out there reading this??? DRUG ADDICTION + ALCOHOLISM is as tried and true as death and taxes.....it's the 3rd constant that will forever inhabit this earth. It doesn't discriminate. White, Black, Green, Women, Man, Christian, Islamic, Vegetarian, or even a god damn homosexual. You don't have to be poor, live in a bad neighborhood, have bad friends, have bad parents, be sexually abused, be picked on, OR ANYTHING ELSE! IN FACT, YOU CAN HAVE A FUCKING DAMN NEAR PERFECT FUCKING UPBRINGING, AND 1 STUPID, HORRIBLE, REGRETTABLE, AWFUL, PAINFUL, MISTAKE can completely change the entire course of your life. AND....the lives of EVERYONE around you. EverySinglePerson who gives a shit whether you take another breath is hurting the whole time your abusing. Do you know why I said abusing instead of using? It was intentional. It was very very intentional. It's very very important and completely different. Your not going to hear this from your doctor, Councilor, sponsor or parents. I'm ONLY saying this because I want to be EXTREMELY AND COMPLETELY CLEAR ABOUT 1 THING IN REGARDS TO MY WRITINGS HERE. Im HONEST. Sometimes to a fault. But I'm NOT EVER going to lie to anyone EVER AGAIN. I've moved past that. It took a lot of work to get to where I am. I worked. My girlfriend worked. My family worked. Eventually. My girlfriend has been many things throughout my life, here's just a small sample: sounding board, friend, lover, object of anger, object of sex, victim of my habits(gambling, drinking, cocaine, percocet, Oxycontin, heroine) faced homelessness, job loss, many many nights of sleep lost, nearly $50,000 lost trying to keep me still moving and hundreds of other things i'll talk about throughout. I have had 1 person that has NEVER EVER EVER let me forget that I have someone in my corner. no matter what. Whether it's a parent, sibling, cousin, friend, or damn pen pal, it takes A LOT. AND I MEAN FOR REAL, A LOT to truly get free from drugs and alcohol. Let someone have your back. Your going to look back and really appreciate it someday. I PROMISE.
To be continued.....
Monday, July 16, 2012
Monday, December 19, 2011
Locks for Love...to cut or not to cut, that is the question!
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7350483/arkansas-razorbacks-michael-sanchez-pays-forward-college-basketball
http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html
The minimum length for donation is 10" according to the website, you can go check out the link above for the acceptable and unacceptable types of hair for donation. The webite is very detailed and explanatory in regards to what you need to do and how to go about donating hair that is to be made into a hairpiece for a cancer patient. *(The ESPN story quotes Michael Sanchez of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team growing out his hair to donate, but they mention needing 8" so I believe that's either an old figure or just a misprint)
Cancer is that word that instantly puts the ultimate fear into you. It's one of the only diseases that the medical community has researched and treated but not found a "cure" over decades and decades. Treatment has come so so so far compared to what the prognosis patients were getting originally. What's so scary about cancer is it can occur in just about anyone.....it's one of the few evils on this earth just like addiction that can fall upon, young/old and everywhere in between, all different races and religions although statistics do show its more common in some races then others.
I have always kept my hair relatively short, while in high school and before I had always played sports so it was much easier, and cooler to just keep it that way. And yes, by cool I mean temperature wise, I don't mean that long hair isn't "cool", haha, cause long hair is actually really HOT!
Anyways, I decided for the first time to just let my hair grow a little, and once it got beyond the point where I usually kept it I had an idea. I had heard of selling hair once it's long enough and i'd also heard of donating it. My sister actually donated her hair twice when she was in elementary/high school. I thought and still think, that was an amazing thing, for a kid that's making such an important decision and gesture especially when it's such a great cause is awsome.
Now i'm at the point where it's been close to a year probably and in a few more months i'll be getting closer to the minimum length for donation or selling and i'm trying to decide between the two. If I sold it though I would be using the money to donate to a charity or non-profit organization regardless, so no matter which is chosen, it will be something towards someone that really needs a little help.
The ESPN article is about Michael Sanchez, and it details part of his childhood growing up where the family got together and held tag sales, saved up everything they had, participated in bake sales and things like a car wash, all to make sure the kids were able to play sports and go to games with their travel teams. The kids saw how much time and effort the parents put into volunteering with school and sports teams to help and that clearly made quite the impression on Michael. As I read up on Michael you can't help but feel a little confused how someone that does so many things right, treats people with respect, helps anyone and everyone that asks or doesn't yet he's continued to get injuries that have kept him sidelined over and over and caused him to miss many games throughout his career.
Sanchez is now growing out his hair to donate because when he was volunteering at the Arkansas Childrens Hospital he was so touched by a little girl and how happy she was helping all the other kids and trying to keep their spirits up. Her name was Zoe and she was suffering from cancer herself, her hair already gone as a sign of what she had been through.....the story really put a smile on my face and I decided to share what I'll be doing as well. The story is absolutely worth the few minutes it will take to give it a read so click that espn link if you have time.
I really think that at this time of year everyone really needs to sit back and reflect on the past year and take the time to just kinda think about how you feel about it. Are you proud of everything you've done in the last 12 months? Is there anything that sticks out and you really regret and wish you could change how you reacted, or what you did, or whatever? No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and I mean EVERYONE.
Whether it's George Bush, Barak Obama, Jim my neighbor or myself, we've all done things were not proud of. Some decisions are microfied a lot more because some of us are in the spotlight a lot more but take that out of it. If you had eyes on you 24 hours everyday, of every week, month for the entire year, what would people think and see.....a real man or women is proud of what they do, even when no one is looking.
http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html
The minimum length for donation is 10" according to the website, you can go check out the link above for the acceptable and unacceptable types of hair for donation. The webite is very detailed and explanatory in regards to what you need to do and how to go about donating hair that is to be made into a hairpiece for a cancer patient. *(The ESPN story quotes Michael Sanchez of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team growing out his hair to donate, but they mention needing 8" so I believe that's either an old figure or just a misprint)
Cancer is that word that instantly puts the ultimate fear into you. It's one of the only diseases that the medical community has researched and treated but not found a "cure" over decades and decades. Treatment has come so so so far compared to what the prognosis patients were getting originally. What's so scary about cancer is it can occur in just about anyone.....it's one of the few evils on this earth just like addiction that can fall upon, young/old and everywhere in between, all different races and religions although statistics do show its more common in some races then others.
I have always kept my hair relatively short, while in high school and before I had always played sports so it was much easier, and cooler to just keep it that way. And yes, by cool I mean temperature wise, I don't mean that long hair isn't "cool", haha, cause long hair is actually really HOT!
Anyways, I decided for the first time to just let my hair grow a little, and once it got beyond the point where I usually kept it I had an idea. I had heard of selling hair once it's long enough and i'd also heard of donating it. My sister actually donated her hair twice when she was in elementary/high school. I thought and still think, that was an amazing thing, for a kid that's making such an important decision and gesture especially when it's such a great cause is awsome.
Now i'm at the point where it's been close to a year probably and in a few more months i'll be getting closer to the minimum length for donation or selling and i'm trying to decide between the two. If I sold it though I would be using the money to donate to a charity or non-profit organization regardless, so no matter which is chosen, it will be something towards someone that really needs a little help.
The ESPN article is about Michael Sanchez, and it details part of his childhood growing up where the family got together and held tag sales, saved up everything they had, participated in bake sales and things like a car wash, all to make sure the kids were able to play sports and go to games with their travel teams. The kids saw how much time and effort the parents put into volunteering with school and sports teams to help and that clearly made quite the impression on Michael. As I read up on Michael you can't help but feel a little confused how someone that does so many things right, treats people with respect, helps anyone and everyone that asks or doesn't yet he's continued to get injuries that have kept him sidelined over and over and caused him to miss many games throughout his career.
Sanchez is now growing out his hair to donate because when he was volunteering at the Arkansas Childrens Hospital he was so touched by a little girl and how happy she was helping all the other kids and trying to keep their spirits up. Her name was Zoe and she was suffering from cancer herself, her hair already gone as a sign of what she had been through.....the story really put a smile on my face and I decided to share what I'll be doing as well. The story is absolutely worth the few minutes it will take to give it a read so click that espn link if you have time.
I really think that at this time of year everyone really needs to sit back and reflect on the past year and take the time to just kinda think about how you feel about it. Are you proud of everything you've done in the last 12 months? Is there anything that sticks out and you really regret and wish you could change how you reacted, or what you did, or whatever? No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, and I mean EVERYONE.
Whether it's George Bush, Barak Obama, Jim my neighbor or myself, we've all done things were not proud of. Some decisions are microfied a lot more because some of us are in the spotlight a lot more but take that out of it. If you had eyes on you 24 hours everyday, of every week, month for the entire year, what would people think and see.....a real man or women is proud of what they do, even when no one is looking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)