I can remember in highschool getting into situations that were very dangerous and not realizing it, because I was young and lacked mature judgment. One beer doesn't seem so bad, but sometimes I was out in the middle of nowhere, with no phone available, and the people who had driven me had significantly more than one beer. I can remember closing my eyes and just praying, in a secular way, that I would get home alive. And it wasn't that I didn't have a strong sense of self-preservation, I've always had that and I never felt as immortal as some kids seem to feel. But I really didn't see some of the danger in my actions, until it was almost too late. That is where fate comes in, I guess. Some kids get a chance to step back from the precipice, some don't.
When I talk to my Megan, who asks questions about drugs now and then, because they cover the topic in school, I try to explain its a slippery slope. And sometimes, you never know when, you can think you are in control, and really be heading toward an abyss. I compare it to riding a bicycle, and suddenly hitting a patch of sand. You can't always see it, and until you fall once you may not even know what it can do. Sadly, some mistakes you can't afford to make even once and that is a hard concept to get accross to a child who has been protected from injury. |
