HeroScape - My Anti-Drug
Posted January 8th, 2009 at 11:57 PM by Gomolka
With the New Year here, many people make their resolution as to what they wish to accomplish for the upcoming year. For some, it's to stick with it to get that promotion you've been working hard for. For others, they may want to lose weight or meet new people. Each goal has its significance in the eye of the beholder, no matter the magnitude of it. With that said, I'd like to share with you my resolution for the New Year, and how HeroScape is helping me to stick with it.
It's been a year since I had my first drink, which occurred at my friend's sister's wedding. Before this time, I despised the thought of consuming alcohol, and had never even considered to even try it. However, celebrating the New Year, and the wedding, I thought I'd give it a try with my friend Jim with me. Though I don't wish to give the impression that it was a good thing, I had a great time dancing during the reception, and more than likely making a complete idiot of myself as Jim and I stumbled around the dance floor. To even things out though, the next day or so was absolutely terrible. However, being young and adolescent, the consequences didn't stop me from doing it again.
After the wedding, I went to the occasional party, probably only once a month or so. The party consisted of your usual teenage high-school party. Drinking, smoking, and the such. I usually partook in the drinking part, would get drunk, and crash at one of my friend's places for the night.
However, as the year went on, it started to become a more common thing. Over the summer, the drinking occurred every few weeks, and I began smoking weed with a group of friends who do it on a daily basis. Needless to say, I was hanging with the wrong crowd.
Over soccer season, I stopped the routine partying on the weekends with my friends, and focused on the season and the beginning of the school year. I hadn't done anything illegal for a few months, and I felt proud of myself for being more dedicated to my team and to my academics. Unfortunately, I was not able to hold my head up high for long, for not long after the soccer season had ended, I was back to the routine weekend partying.
Getting to my point, I had somewhat of an epiphany over my Winter Break. Since I had no school for about two weeks, I was free nearly every day, and my soccer and track team had come to a temporary halt for the break as well. Each day I didn't have much to do, so I ended up either getting drunk or high nearly every day. If I wasn't in either of those conditions, then I was recovering from the repercussions of these actions from the previous day. Then, one day that I couldn't find any friends to hang out and smoke with, I decided to break out the new HeroScape pieces that I had ordered for Christmas, and remembered that a few of my friends who I had played with before were asking if we were going to play over break. So, I made a few calls, and that night I hosted 5 people for a sleepover.
We had an awesome night. Most of them aren't too skilled at Heroscape, so we just had as much fun with it as we could, and everyone really enjoyed it. It was probably the most fun I had over my entire Winter Break, and I was able to do it without being under the influence of Drugs or Alcohol. That's when I had my epiphany. I didn't need Drugs or Alcohol to have fun. I didn't need to go through the sneaking out of the house, lying to my parents, or harming my body with illegal substances in order to enjoy myself in a social situation. Better yet, there were no consequences for it either (however, cleaning up after a 6 person Free For all can be rather tedious)!
So, on New Year's eve, I did as most teenagers did, and as I had been doing throughout the year, and partied. I told myself that this was the last time, and then I'm done. My New Year's Resolution: Avoid the use of drugs or alcohol completely, and rekindle friendships with those I had been ignoring by playing HeroScape with them.
I thought I'd share this with everyone here, since this a community of people that I really trust to understand my situation, and hopefully you can all look past my wrongdoings and support me in my effort to stay clean.
Happy New Year to everyone, and Happy 'Scaping!
-Greg
It's been a year since I had my first drink, which occurred at my friend's sister's wedding. Before this time, I despised the thought of consuming alcohol, and had never even considered to even try it. However, celebrating the New Year, and the wedding, I thought I'd give it a try with my friend Jim with me. Though I don't wish to give the impression that it was a good thing, I had a great time dancing during the reception, and more than likely making a complete idiot of myself as Jim and I stumbled around the dance floor. To even things out though, the next day or so was absolutely terrible. However, being young and adolescent, the consequences didn't stop me from doing it again.
After the wedding, I went to the occasional party, probably only once a month or so. The party consisted of your usual teenage high-school party. Drinking, smoking, and the such. I usually partook in the drinking part, would get drunk, and crash at one of my friend's places for the night.
However, as the year went on, it started to become a more common thing. Over the summer, the drinking occurred every few weeks, and I began smoking weed with a group of friends who do it on a daily basis. Needless to say, I was hanging with the wrong crowd.
Over soccer season, I stopped the routine partying on the weekends with my friends, and focused on the season and the beginning of the school year. I hadn't done anything illegal for a few months, and I felt proud of myself for being more dedicated to my team and to my academics. Unfortunately, I was not able to hold my head up high for long, for not long after the soccer season had ended, I was back to the routine weekend partying.
Getting to my point, I had somewhat of an epiphany over my Winter Break. Since I had no school for about two weeks, I was free nearly every day, and my soccer and track team had come to a temporary halt for the break as well. Each day I didn't have much to do, so I ended up either getting drunk or high nearly every day. If I wasn't in either of those conditions, then I was recovering from the repercussions of these actions from the previous day. Then, one day that I couldn't find any friends to hang out and smoke with, I decided to break out the new HeroScape pieces that I had ordered for Christmas, and remembered that a few of my friends who I had played with before were asking if we were going to play over break. So, I made a few calls, and that night I hosted 5 people for a sleepover.
We had an awesome night. Most of them aren't too skilled at Heroscape, so we just had as much fun with it as we could, and everyone really enjoyed it. It was probably the most fun I had over my entire Winter Break, and I was able to do it without being under the influence of Drugs or Alcohol. That's when I had my epiphany. I didn't need Drugs or Alcohol to have fun. I didn't need to go through the sneaking out of the house, lying to my parents, or harming my body with illegal substances in order to enjoy myself in a social situation. Better yet, there were no consequences for it either (however, cleaning up after a 6 person Free For all can be rather tedious)!
So, on New Year's eve, I did as most teenagers did, and as I had been doing throughout the year, and partied. I told myself that this was the last time, and then I'm done. My New Year's Resolution: Avoid the use of drugs or alcohol completely, and rekindle friendships with those I had been ignoring by playing HeroScape with them.
I thought I'd share this with everyone here, since this a community of people that I really trust to understand my situation, and hopefully you can all look past my wrongdoings and support me in my effort to stay clean.
Happy New Year to everyone, and Happy 'Scaping!
-Greg
Comments 6
Total Comments 6
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Great to hear! I hope and pray that you can keep your resolution. Just wanted to throw in a little encouragement if you slip and feel like giving up,
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." -Japanese Proverb |
Posted January 9th, 2009 at 12:08 AM by EternalThanos86
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That's what I like to hear. I hope you can stick with your resolution.
As a fellow HS student, that stuff can be incredibly tempting, espeically when it is glorified by peers. While it can be difficult, resisting will pay off, as it will snowball into something good for you. Similar to the way you got into it, people talk and if you really exhibit change, things will change for you, since people love having something to talk about. Again, good luck. |
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Posted January 9th, 2009 at 12:13 AM by S1R_ART0R1US
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I do a lot of counseling regarding alcohol and drugs in my job and I'll tell you that most people are just looking for a hobby to have fun. If alcohol and drugs are the only things they know how to do, it becomes their only hobby... and ends up defining who they are. Sounds like you have a good plan for making smart decisions regarding the way you want to live your life. Good for you and good luck.
EternalThanos86's quote is right on the money, the only thing I would add is a quote of my own, "Remember that you can't fall off a mountain." In other words, even if you fall down, I'm sure there are a lot of people around to help you. Mountains are bigger than people give them credit for... so are the people in your life. Keep striving to reach the top. |
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Posted January 9th, 2009 at 06:57 PM by Bones
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Stay golden...Gomolka. In all seriousness, I wish you good luck to complete you goal this year, Greg! It's tough by the influences, just keep your mind positive.
My resolutions: -Get healthy (already have a week under my belt of no junk food at all! I'm so proud); Start working out again (starting my old routine (which really got me jacked) this monday) -Get every other To Do List goal done (includes lots of Heroscape moving and documenting an downloading and travel and all that  )-Stop gossiping even though I don't do it that much because only the smallest of it only causes conflict. |
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Posted January 10th, 2009 at 05:23 PM by Cleon
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Stick with it. you shake those habits people will really look up to you best of luck.
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Posted January 11th, 2009 at 08:44 PM by X-Man
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Just found this in the gallery.
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Posted January 16th, 2009 at 08:22 PM by S1R_ART0R1US
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Recent Blog Entries by Gomolka
- HeroScape - My Anti-Drug (January 8th, 2009)
