Feedback appreciated
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
It was a bright and sunny summer day after my volunteer work at camp. We were walking down Art Street on our way to the stallion market. I looked at him and asked "So how's the drug problem going?" He answered, "It's been going alright. I quit drinking for a month now and I'm trying to quit smoking." I told him "Don't worry, just keep at it and never cave in. You'll eventually get used to it and not start to crave it anymore." He replied "Thanks dude. I wish I never started before, if I had gotten back in time I would have said 'No.' I don't know how you do it. You must have had guts to say no when they asked you." I smiled and said, "Well, I don't know. It's just how I am. Next time just say 'No."
For my whole life I was always against smoking or drinking. I was always the oddball. It may sound stereotypical, but from my 4 years of my high school, I've known quite a lot of people who smoke weed everyday and drink on occasions. Back in 9th grade I have had a group of friends I've always used to hang out with. They all never smoked in their life and they all never really planned to. We all made a promise to each other that we would never smoke. 2 years had gone by and I became the only person out of my 7 friends who still kept that promise. I've been to a few parties and I have been offered weed and alcohol before but I've always said the magic word, "No." I never really gave in to peer pressure before. I consider myself as an individual who sticks to moral beliefs and when I make a promise I keep a promise and I never break it. I've been exposed to drugs and alcohol before but just because my friends do it doesn't mean I will do it either.
Abstaining from drugs and alcohol was always a personal choice of mine. I knew the effects it had and I've seen the effects before from all of my friends. A real close friend of mine from elementary and middle school recently had a close encounter with death because of dangerous alcohol intoxication. Out of my entire group of friends who smoke, I'm the only one who manages to keep my grades up and focus on my schoolwork or attend after school club meetings rather than going to parties. I have tried to help my close friends to stay away from drugs, and I have even attended the school's "Adopt a friend" program to get a friend off drugs but I've always had difficulties. They would stop for a day or so but always come right back. However during my volunteer work and job as a Camp Counselor at my local summer camp, I've always warned the small campers about the dangerous effects of alcohols and drugs and when they were ever offered, just say "No." I may have not had the best luck with trying to keep friends who previously did drugs or drink before, but I think I did a good job warning the youth not to do it.
Simply saying "No," to drugs has always made me proud. I always feel a sense of superiority and control, and it's not just because I don't do drugs, it's much more than that. The sense comes from my perseverance and my ability to stay strong in my beliefs and to not conform to anything that I view would be bad for others or myself. I choose to live a clean lifestyle and still to this day I'm determined not to ever break my promise.
It may sound stereotypical, but from my four years of my high school, I've known quite a lot of people who smoke weed every day and drink on occasions. Back In 9th grade , I have had a group of friends I've always used to hang out with. They all never smoked in their life and they all never really planned to.
That sentence I crossed out is not so good. You would say: None of them ever...
But that sentence is not good, anyway.
I think you could improve this essay by talking about something you DO want to do... to balance it out. Discipline is meaningful if it is purposeful. What is your purpose? Society needs people like you. Do you aspire to hold a position where you have to be alert and clear-headed all the time? If you leave it like this, it is all about what you don't do... but what do you want to accomplish?
