{"id":158,"date":"2016-10-03T16:46:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T16:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=158"},"modified":"2016-10-03T16:46:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T16:46:37","slug":"day-6-sobriety-awareness-a-students-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2016\/10\/03\/day-6-sobriety-awareness-a-students-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 6: Sobriety Awareness – a student’s perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Health Organization defines sobriety as \u201ca continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use.\u201d\u00a0 Lebanon Valley College has designated October 3-6 as Sobriety Awareness Week.\u00a0 Various events are planned to promote discussions on sobriety.\u00a0 Click HERE<\/a> for those events.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike Fry\u2019s FYE class is studying addiction.\u00a0 Students were asked to write a story about something or someone who helped shaped one\u2019s attitudes toward alcohol or drugs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

La Vie is posting the stories of six students, who all agreed to the publication of their submission.\u00a0 These writings are unedited.\u00a0 They appear as how they were submitted for the class assignment.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Day 6<\/em>:\u00a0<\/strong> My friend’s life changed mine<\/strong>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

By: an anonymous student<\/strong><\/p>\n

I met my best friend in the 5th grade.\u00a0 She was always a hyper person, and was always smiling.\u00a0 She never failed to make me laugh, and her aura seemed so carefree.\u00a0 We helped each other out — as I helped her calm down and stay focused, she helped me take risks and keep my spirits high.\u00a0 When we were kids, there was never a dull moment spent with her.<\/p>\n

As we grew into teenagers, we became inseparable.\u00a0 We were practically sisters, and that is when i got to see the real side of her.\u00a0 I realized that her smile was often used as a mask to shield her suffering from the rest of the world around her.\u00a0 Seeming okay to those around her is what mattered most to her.\u00a0 But at home, I watched her live a life of Hell.<\/p>\n

Her father is an alcoholic.\u00a0 Most times I see him, he has a coffee cup in his handed filled with Southern Comfort.\u00a0 He was always okay and functioned around me, but when I would leave he would get worse.<\/p>\n

She was once grounded for almost a year in the 8th grade.\u00a0 The only times I would see her were at school, where she would tell me that her father along with her mother would lock her in room.\u00a0 She would call me using the home phone at 2 a.m. crying over the things they would say to her.\u00a0 That year of isolation affected her in ways I will never be able to understand.\u00a0 It took the light out of her soul.<\/p>\n

In high school, her parents almost got a divorce.\u00a0 I remember her telling me she was proud of her mother for standing up to her father.\u00a0 Sadly, this never happened because her mom could not leave him, she claimed she loved him too much and could not function without him\u00a0 Her dad has all the control in their relationship and it certainly affects the way she views love.\u00a0 She will change herself for a boy because her mother changes her identity for her drunken father.\u00a0 Her mother can’t gain weight, can’t wear certain clothes and can’t associate with certain friends without the approval of her father.<\/p>\n

I had to listen to the traumatic things her father would say to her.\u00a0 She once told me when father was intoxicated, he told her to leave the house and that he didn’t want or love her anymore.\u00a0 Her mother stood in the staircase, too afraid to say or do anything.\u00a0 I watched the favoritism her father gave to her older brother.\u00a0 If she did anything as simple as forgetting to do the dishes, her father would go in a drunken rage.\u00a0 She ran to my house in tears countless times because of her father acting out of hand.<\/p>\n

The most recent event was at the end of our senior year when I received a phone call from her.\u00a0 She was bawling to the point where I could barely comprehend her, so her boyfriend had to take the phone and tell me to come to his house as soon as possible.\u00a0 I dropped everything to rush by her side and her boyfriend proceeded to tell me that her dad called the cops on her for her using her own money to get a haircut and kicked her out of the house.\u00a0 She had a bag of clothes with her, and she was shaking so badly as she was sitting in the car.\u00a0 She kept repeating the words, “I don’t want to live anymore.”\u00a0 That as the most difficult thing I ever had to see.<\/p>\n

Her experiences have made me cautious to be in the presence of alcohol.\u00a0 Alcohol doesn’t just poison the consumer, but it is toxic to those around the consumer.\u00a0 To be the loved one of an alcoholic can ultimately affect your life.\u00a0 Loved ones are forever scarred from the emotional events they had to face.\u00a0 Alcohol is a poison.<\/p>\n

I will never drink in front of my children because of my best friend.\u00a0 I will never let addiction take over my life because of my best friend.\u00a0 She is forever scarred, emotionally unstable, and will never completely be herself again.\u00a0 Her father’s addiction took pieces from her that she can never refill, and I refuse to ever let the people I love go through that.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Health Organization defines sobriety as \u201ca continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use.\u201d\u00a0 Lebanon Valley College has designated October 3-6 as Sobriety Awareness Week.\u00a0 Various events are planned to promote discussions on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}