Hi! 
Wow, I haven’t written in a while! Sorry about that, I guess it’s just been kind of busy, and Learner Blogs has been extremely slow lately. Anybody know what’s up with that?
Anyways, an update with the International Teen Life Project. We had our Skype call on Monday, and it went great! It was different, hearing different kids from around the world, but it was cool. The Skype call can be found here.
As for other updates, we have been working on the wiki. There is now a chart set up with many different ideas, and different people have signed up to do the project they’re interested in. I have chosen to do drugs and alcohol, and family abuse (it’s all one topic.)
Why am I interested in this topic? I am interested in drugs, alcohol, and family abuse because I think it’s a serious issue. First, I’ll talk about drugs and alcohol, then family abuse, so that this post doesn’t seem so unorganized.
Drugs and alcohol kill so many people every day…and it really disturbs me. There’s people of different ages everywhere, saying they drink and do drugs just to sound “cool,” but it’s not cool. They know what it does to them, yet they continue to do it. I once had a friend tell me that they’d rather see someone do pot than be an alcoholic. I couldn’t believe that. Sure, both are bad, but why would anyone want to do either of them? I asked them why they thought this, and they said because all that alcohol does is make you angry and abusive, but pot just makes you hungry and tired and laugh a lot, and that it helps you think better. I honestly couldn’t see where this person was coming from. Pot is just as bad as alcohol, and not only is it a drug and not good for your body, it’s illegal as well. I told this person they were wrong, and they should rather see people not doing anything. They understood this after I told them what drugs and alcohol do to you. Not that they didn’t know, mind you. I just told them that nobody should do drugs or alcohol, and they agreed with me in the end.
Pot, however, is most definitely not the only drug out there. There are a lot of different kinds of drugs, and all of them harm your system, even when you think they’re not. Take crystal meth, for example. It’s proven that 90% of people who try this drug once get addicted. I’m sure most of you have seen pictures, or actual people, who are/have been on meth. If not, go to this site. I got it from someone who was giving a presentation about meth. I’ll warn you, though, the pictures of the people are terrible. It shows pictures of people before they were on meth, and then after a certain amount of time.
Drinking is something that has always scared me…I won’t get into why it scares me, but it does. Anyway. When a person gets drunk, they tend to get angry, which can lead to many different forms of abuse. People can get help with their drinking problems, but they just have to be ready to admit to themselves that they have a problem. And only they can do that.
Anyways, I think I’ll move onto family abuse now. Drugs and alcohol are sometimes the reason that parents/children get abusive, but sometimes it’s just because there’s something on their mind and they have to let it all out on someone, sometimes in a very abusive form. Sometimes people are just sick and wrong and just feel like beating on someone for the fun of it. Abuse can be physical, verbal, or sexual. Physical abuse can be things like hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, and biting. Verbal abuse can be things like swearing, threats, or hurtful words. Sexual abuse is anything along the lines of rape. People can stop abuse if it’s being done to them or someone they know, but sometimes people are too frightened to go for help. Sometimes people don’t go for help because the person abusing them said if they do, they would kill them, or something along the lines of that. In some cases, it’s too late to go for help, because the abuse went too far. A lot of people die from their own family abusing them, and this really bothers me, and disturbs me. Why would people abuse the people that they are supposed to love and care for? I never really understood that. Sure, there may be something bothering them, but why let it all out on your family? It’s just not fair. When two people have a child, why would they have one just to abuse it? There are so many questions I have about abuse, and I doubt that some of them will ever be answered. Did people plan to abuse their children, or was it unexpected? I don’t understand abuse…how would that person feel if they were the one being abused?
Anyways. I’ve shared all of my thoughts about drinking, drugs, and abuse, so now I have to think about what form of representation I am going use for my project. I was thinking about doing a video, but now that I think about it, it might be a bit hard to do. It’s a bit hard to show abuse, and I don’t really want anyone to get hurt. I really want to do that video, though, and ask some of my classmates to play the roles of people in the video. I’m still thinking…
If you have any further thoughts about abuse, drinking, and/or drugs, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.
April <3
. There’s a Valentine’s Day Dance on Thursday (February 15) and it’s $2.50 to get in if wearing red or pink and $5.00 if not. I’m going…I’m going to every dance this year except I don’t know if I really want to go to semi formal in April. I hate wearing dresses and getting my hair all done and stuff. But anyways I’m getting off-topic…my mom is trying to get me a pink tank/strap shirt in Thompson but if she can’t find one I have one at home I can wear.
, they always do anyway.