Privilege can become toxic if you don’t keep yourself in check. You learn to expect things, no matter what the cost; you learn to make unreasonable demands of people; and if you’re like I was, you learn to lie to your parents about almost everything. I’d been smoking weed and drinking heavily since I was fourteen, but it wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I really got into hard drugs. For me it started when I got my license and wanted to celebrate by trying cocaine for the first time at a party.
Growing up I remember my dad loved to watch this old college comedy movie called Animal House and stared John Belushi (before the America Pie college movies that I grew up watching). Belushi was one of the original Saturday Night Live alumni, who would later die at 33 from a cocaine related drug overdose. My dad loved John Belushi’s character Bluto and would laugh out loud when watching Animal House and Bluto says “there goes 7 years of college down the drain!”
By the time I was 24, I had done a Bluto and wasted 7 years at three different colleges, failing out of each of them. All because I refused to stop partying and spend anytime studying. The one thing I really did learn to excel at was making excuses to my parents for all of my failures. My dad finally said enough is enough and wouldn’t pay for me to continue onto my 8th year of full-time undergraduate school at a new 4th college. With no money of my own and no where else to go I had no choice but to move back home with my parents.
Under the guise of “figuring out my next move” I asked my father for a job in the family business. Despite my lack of experience and qualification, my mother talked my dad to giving a chance. Almost immediately upon started work in the family business I resumed my partying ways and was leaving early to go to get high with my old high school friends (or even by myself). My only concern was when and where I would be getting high next. My use of cocaine and alcohol were all that mattered to me. After a few weeks of missing meetings and making my father look bad, he tried confronted me about my poor job performance, but I was high as a kite and in no shape to listen to him. I yelled at him to leave me alone, he grabbed me by arm and I try punching him in the face but fortunately missed and hit the wall and broke my hand. This scared us both and we said nothing to each other for the rest of night. The next morning he gave me an ultimatum and told me if I wanted to keep my job and the roof over my head I had to go to this rehab he found for me. I knew I had no choice so I agreed and left for this place in Palm Beach, Florida called Seaside Luxury Rehab.
Their excellent program got me clean and I have stayed that way for these past 11 months since I graduated from their luxury drug rehab program. I am back to working at my father’s company in the day time. I am also going to college again, but this time I am only going part-time at night. Believe me; if I can change, anybody can change!
