Potential Toastmasters Touching Story.

In 1978 I graduated high school and that summer there was a period of time where I would hang out with my friends before going on to college classes. One day two of my good friends picked me up and we were going to just drive around aimlessly. Those two guys were in the front seats and I was in the back. When we were about 5 miles away from my home I smelled that sickly sweet smell of marijuana.

Now, to answer Aunt Paulette’s question, I was raised by Marcel and Pat Beauregard. Maybe I had a sheltered childhood compared to most other kids, but I never hung around with kids who used drugs of any kind. And if I did, I was unaware of it. To this day I have never used any recreational drugs. The only drugs I’ve had were prescribed by doctors and on a temporary basis.

But I was familiar with that smell. There used to be a guy in high school named “Herb” who had a van and drove to school. He was very popular with the drug using kids and in the parking lot you could SEE kids getting in and out of that van, and all the smoke too. Kindof funny now that I think of it that he always had marijuana and his named was herb.

I told my friends that I wanted them to stop. They laughed. They tried to coerce me to join them. I said no. And at the next traffic light I got out of the car and walked home. And I never heard from either one of them again. Until 20 years later.

At my 20-year high school reunion I saw one of them there. It was a weekend event, but the only day I could attend was on Sunday when they had a family picnic in the park. He was not officially attending the reunion but was able to take a break from work and come by. And it was a short walk for him because he was an employee of the park. Probably a maintenance man or janitor, I don’t know.

But we had a chance to talk and catch up. HE brought up that day almost 20 years earlier where they lost me as their friend. He told me that he started to take drugs and drink heavily. Before long his life was out of control and he hit rock bottom. Somehow he had gotten involved with Alcoholics Anonymous and was slowly rebuilding. As part of AA he was in a 12-step program. One of the steps is atoning for the wrongs that you do to others. This was his opportunity to apologize to me. He said that at the time he did not realize that, had we been stopped by the police, ALL of us would have been arrested, even though I was innocent. And he said he admired me for the courage I had to walk away from friends and the pressure.

That was 8 years ago. We haven’t really been in touch since. Hopefully I will see him at the next reunion.

Today I am involved in Tae Kwon Do and that gives me exposure to kids of all ages. On more than one occasion I have been able to tell that story to boys who seemed to be at a crossroads as to whether to be a leader or a follower. It may take years to know if I was helpful or not.