3rd place

Tiffany Kolb
8th grade
Mt. Pine School

     Taking drugs in your system is a horrible habit that is hard to quit. If someone take drugs  they do series of things they ordinarily wouldn’t do......

     I have a neighbor that was really nice and a sweet old women, but on my way home from school one day, I started walking down the street and the other neighbors were outside by her house and they were all screaming call 911, and I froze in terror as I saw them holding her, then I pulled myself together and called 911. I gave one of the other neighbor the cell phone and I sent in the fence and up the steps, on to the porch where they had her, and she was pale and she had tear stains on her face.

     She looked over at me and pulled my shirt collar and said she hated me in a slow whisper, hoarse voice that I’ve never heard before, but then the ambulance showed up and my grandpa was helping her up, the paramedics put her on the stretcher, and I heard one of them say she had overdosed an hour or two ago on some kind of pills that she had bought when I went to the store with her the day earlier, and I sat on my knees sitting there thinking why would she do that, why did she say she hated me, all these thoughts and more running through my mind, when the ambulance drove away my grandpa started to back up the steps toward me, he had said she loves me as if I was her granddaughter.

     I had interrupted him to say, “then why did she say she hated me?” and he had told me that sometimes people don’t act themselves when they are under the influence of drugs and that she envied the people around her because, they are able to have kids, they are able to watch movies and cook and sometimes my grandma would come over with me.........She was really like a grandma to me more than my mom’s adopted mom, she is always there for me and that day changed my point of view on drugs........

     I never wish that on anyone it’s horrible to think that such a terrible experience can affect you in so many ways. The next day they let her out and she’s fine now, better than ever, I think that what she experienced had a huge affect on her too....For better or for worse, drugs aren’t the way to go.