When I was 18 I had met my now husband. I was drinking like a fish, staying in cheep hotels and partying my ass off. Doing anything I could get my hands on. I was at my lowest of lows. I was a shell of a person. The people I was hanging around weren't there to build me up, they were there to use me and whatever I had to offer. And I was too. I called thease people my "friends". I was seconds away from getting kicked out of my moms house. I was out every night and I know she stayed up worried sick about me. That year I had lost my step sister to heroin and she was so scared that I would be next. That I would decide to take something while in a hotel room, or someones trap house, and it would kill me. I watched children being subjected to the choices of their parents. Little babys in tiny apartments sleeping in swings while their mom and dad snorted cocaine and smoked pot. I numbed this out. Told myself it wasnt my business. I watched grown men be so intoxicated they'd piss on themselves in front of everyone. I watched young women get betten by their own boyfriends, but they were too drunk to care. I watched countless fights, I've been trapped in a room with guys that were suppose to be my friends trying to do god knows what to me. Lucky I was always able to escape that situation. Every night was a party. I never thought I would get out of that life. I would get black out drunk to erase any bad memories I had in my head that day. I would be the first person to encourage you to do something bad. I was the bad influence. Then I met my husband. He was the same way. We got together and without even saying a word to each other about getting our lives together one day it just all stopped. We got married. I now have a little boy, weve been sober for over 2 years now and havent partied at all since being together. I go to church, I'm a bad ass mom. I started to wonder how one of the girls of my old group was doing. Before I left my home town and got married the last time I saw her she wasnt doing too good. I went on her Facebook and she still stays in the same cheep hotels, with the same people, partying doing god knows what in them. And I started to wonder. How did I escape? How did I get lucky enough to get my second change at life? It reminded me that some people just dont get lucky that, that life doesnt stop for everyone. Then I remembered my step sister. And it's the truth, either you stop or that life kills you. I didnt do anything on purpose to stop, I simply got lucky. I thank god every day for pulling me out of that. I knew I was never suppose to be that person. Nothing about it was me. I just pray for those people. If you're in the situation that I was in, the grass is greener on the other side. Life is beautiful outside of cheep hotels and drugs.