Part 2: Senior High School
by Linda Folden

I will admit that night is still a little hazy, but I’m pretty sure I was alert when my car ran off the road and hit the tree. Sure, I had a few drinks that evening but what high school student doesn’t have a few drinks to get them through all the junk in their lives. Besides, I really am able to hold my liquor. I know people like to say that but, compared to my friends, I can still drink, drive, and speak rationally even after a few drinks.

Still, what happened that night is a mystery to me. The cops say I lost control, my car left the road, and I hit the tree. I think a small animal must have run across the road and I swerved to miss it. Whatever happened, I ended up in the hospital with some injuries. The injuries weren’t too bad but the pain was intense. The doctor prescribed Lortab and I have been self-medicating with it ever since. It’s not anything bad, mind you, just a little here and there to get me through the day.

It’s pretty tough being a high school student. Teachers expect a lot out of you and the administrators never let up. My parents nagged me constantly about helping out at home. Hey what did they expect, I worked summers. The one thing that got me through the week was the weekend pharm parties. Without those parties I wouldn’t have been able to put up with the constant barrage of garbage to which I was subjected. Don’t adults know constant talk, talk, talk can really get on a guy’s nerves?

After the injuries I received in the car crash I continued to use Lortab. I still attended pharm parties but I really didn’t need them as much. I found that alcohol really relaxed me and when the stress got out of hand, I had my new friend Lortab. If I had only known that . . . well, to be honest if I had only known lots of things, but life was always a little hazy and just keeping it together to make it through the day was pretty hard.

Even though that last year in high school was kind of a blur, I was smart enough to get into college to follow my goal to become a doctor like the ones that helped me after my wreck. However, my parents kept on me all the time about my late hours and partying. They nagged about pulling the plug if I couldn’t keep up my grades. Even my grandparents wouldn’t help me out anymore. They had figured out that their medicine cabinet was an excellent source for my pharm party contributions.

No one got it! My life was cool! I was cool! What did they want from me anyway? I would show them I could have it all. They were just old fashioned stupid jerks. Heck it was my life and I had everything under control…or so I thought.

Linda Folden, Success Counselor at Greenville High School, serves on the DFG Public Education Committee