Sure, we all know the effects of drugs. We hear teachers drone on about it all throughout our high school careers. We see the posters hanging in the halls warning us of the dangers of drugs. We all know they’re illegal, we know they’re dangerous, we know they’re not good for us. So why do they appeal to so many high school students? I don’t think we truly grasp the impact of drugs until we witness it first hand.

Let’s face it, if you participate in these things, odds are you’ll get caught sooner or later. I don’t know about you guys, but personally I think it’s so sad to watch a life ruined because of a silly, in-the-moment decision. One mistake and we see our peers stripped of everything, cut from the team, suspended and isolated from the rest of us.

The consequences go beyond school administration. Rumors spread faster than the Black Plague and before you know it, half the school is whispering about it. Forever deemed as “the kid who got caught with drugs,” people will judge without a second thought.

While it isn’t always necessarily beautiful, reputation and the way people see you is, in fact, an aspect of beauty. It isn’t always in our control what people think of us; the only thing we can really do is make decisions we can live with.