Lately life has been throwing me a lot of curve balls and I don’t have the catching skills like I used to. It seems like it’s just one thing after another that takes its toll on me and drags me down. It's discouraging but I’ve grown to be strong. My whole life I’ve been a fighter. I’ve fought for my happiness through the darkest situations. This past month has really been hard for me due to one thing: drug addiction.

Drug addiction is quite possibly the saddest way you can lose someone. I have lost countless friends and family members to their drug habits. I’ve lost some of the closest people to me to drugs, and I can't just sit in silence and watch it happen.

Throughout high school I’ve watched friend after friend go to rehabilitation programs to get the help they need. For some of those friends it worked and I couldn't be more proud of them, but other friends just went back to their same old ways. Among these countless friends, some being my best ones, I’ve also lost family members due to drug addiction.

Drug addiction takes away the loving, caring people we once knew, and turns them into people who fiend for what it takes to get them that certain high. That certain high is not worth ruining relationships with your friends and family members. I understand that people will do drugs and there's no stopping that, but there are boundaries. Everything needs to be done in moderation.

I grew up around drug addiction without even knowing it. My mother was always the one at work and my father stayed at home. Usually this is the other way around, but in my family's case it was not. Then my parents' divorce began. Their divorce was pretty nasty and my mother and I were constantly in danger, all because my father's drug habit morphed him into a person he truly wasn't. I attended a private elementary school where word spread quickly among parents and I never quite understood why other children's parents did not want them to have sleepovers or playdates with me. I took this personally and assumed it was just because of me, not knowing that it was because of my father's drug habits. My father's drug addiction created my self consciousness that my friends did not like me for no specific reason.

I truly began realizing that I didn’t have a home life like every other kid when my parents were constantly fighting and my mom was taking me on trips without my dad, which in retrospect I realize were to keep him from harming either of us.

I transferred schools to get away from the depressed state and life I was living and I found myself a group of incredibly supportive friends and I couldn't be more thankful for them (shoutout to them if they’re reading this). Sophomore and Junior year were fine and I’m so glad I’ve been privileged enough to have the high school experience that I’ve had. Senior year things took a turn. Many of those supportive friends struggled with their own problems and began resorting to drugs and the drugs took over their lives. Unfortunately my father slipped back into his drug habits too. My friends who I lost to addiction will never get to experience prom, college acceptances, walking the stage at graduation or anything like that. My own father's addiction has put him back into prison and he will never see me receive my diploma or graduate from college. But I am stronger than that. I am stronger than drug habits, I am smart enough to know that my future comes first and, most importantly, I am experienced enough to know that no drug is worth ruining your life over. Sure, it’s sad that my father and certain friends are no longer in my life due to their addictions, but my advice to anyone is to just do everything in moderation. There will never be a way to completely eliminate drug use and that is just a cold hard fact. All I can hope is that this article helps someone who is, knows, or was an addict. I lost the people some of my best friends were and the person my father was a long time ago to drugs and addictions and I would never wish that upon anyone. Just keep in mind drug addiction doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone around you.