Robbed of Life

It has been said, “youth is wasted on the young.”  How many choices a person makes in a lifetime are astronomical.  As people get older their ability to make choices in life becomes enhanced by wisdom.  Wisdom is that commodity people attain from experiences they lived, sometimes as a result  from the choices they made.  Unfortunately for younger persons, they have not yet developed wisdom; the drives of youth and hormones often are so strong, young people act without regard of consequences.

To be accepted, to be an intellectual, to find God, or to be a tough guy, the reasons to start on the slippery path of drug use are too numerous to mention.  The result  of drug experimentation, becomes drug use, it becomes drug addiction, and choice becomes a moot point.  The peer pressure is enormous, and everyone has experienced it on some level.  To explore the world outside parental bounds, is the call of the wild, and very alluring.  If one thing in life is certain, it is change.  People who make ill-informed decisions, because right now it seems to make sense, are not looking at the whole decision process.

There are too many lives in this country ruined because of poor or rash decisions.  The prison system exacerbates the whole problem, by punishing young people for mistakes in judgement.  A punishment that almost always outweighs the offense, because a prison record closes doors to so many opportunities.  Drug and alcohol addiction is the end result for some young people who let their inquisitive nature override their decision process.  Other people have crippling legal issues; all people face some consequence, sometime in the future for actions taken today.

The end of life, is when a person reviews the life lived; perhaps a person makes a column of positive accomplishments, and a column of negative situations.  People throughout history have faced down and beaten horrific adversity by determination and sound judgement.  Unfortunately many more people have succumbed to instant gratification, the consequences hidden within a poor choice, and their life had no shot at becoming a shinning star.  Those people are the thieves who come in the night; people who take everything, and leave only want and ruin.  Those people are the thieves who stole their own life from under their own noses.  Robbed of life and knowing, deep down, the reason why.  Life has so many things to offer, and a person is free to live how they choose.  It is heartbreaking when someone chooses to rob themselves of life, liberty, and the pursuit of a life worth living.