Story of my life... At a crossroads with my friends...

When I was 18, I made a decision that changed everything. I was walking down the street with some friends on a Friday night, and we were having a good time. Just as we usually did.

But tonight there was a problem, and I knew I had to do something about it, just wasn’t sure I could .

For the past couple of years, my friends had started experimenting with cigarettes and alcohol.
It was slow at first, just a once or twice sort of thing, but by the time this Friday came, they regularly smoked and drank when we were out alone.
I thought that as long as I kept myself clean from what they were doing, I could still have a good time with them.of course; my parents could tell something wasn’t right with my friends. And my friends could tell that my parents didn’t approve of them.
That left me in the uncomfortable middle: I found myself repeatedly defending my friends to my parents and defending my parents to my friends.
So there we were that Friday night, walking down the street. My friends started drinking and smoking, and I finally realized how uncomfortable I was with their behavior.So I made a choice.
I walked to the other side of the road. My friends laughed at me. The called me “goody-goody”. And they said we could not be friends anymore
Well, we got to de end of de road. My friends turned left, and I turned right. I was two miles (3km) from home, and they were the longest two miles i’d ever walked.
You might think I would feel good about making such a courageous choice, but in that moment, I felt awful. I woke up the next morning with the terrifying realization that I had lost my friends and that I was now alone. For an 18-year-old, that was devastating.

Ultimately, we are all responsible for our own choices, and many of those choices must be made personally, individually. Often our decisions make us feel isolated, and even lonely 😩