Katie had it all, yet she knew she had nothing at all. Safely tucked away in her bedroom from the rest of the world by her parents, Katie wanted more: she had all she needed materially but lacked the love and attention of her parents who were scarcely around.
As a seventeen-year-old girl who was trying to navigate through life, the only time Katie had to explore was in and after school. As a result of her parent’s negligence, she was left at the mercy of her friend Sandy who, on the other hand, was as free as a bird. A girl who knew the nooks and crannies of every town. Besides, she was not called Sandy the Shawty for nothing. As a teenager who always needed someone to confide–since her parents were unavailable–guess who had to listen? Yes, you guessed right – Sandy! Sandy the shawty always had a ‘solution’ to every problem.
On this fateful day, on Katie’s eighteenth birthday, one of the ‘solutions’ Sandy had to Katie’s problem was a party to drown away her sorrows. Immediately they got to the venue, the first thing Sandy ‘ordered’ was marijuana. Unlike other people who need time to get accustomed, Katie loved it immediately after that first hit. The knowledge that she could use this substance to change how she felt excited her. And that’s exactly what she needed at that time. So she thought.
A year later, at nineteen and final year in senior high, Katie said yes yet again to Sandy the shawty, and she used cocaine for the very first time. Katie’s grades dropped drastically. One of the mistakes Katie and Sandy made was bringing this substance to school to sell to their classmates. They were doing pretty well at first. They were ‘successful entrepreneurs’, you can say.
News went round and the Principal got to know, and they were both expelled. Katie’s parents were furious and kicked her out; and again, she ran into the ever-open arms of Sandy the shawty. Years rolled by and Katie became a staunch addict. At this point, Katie was already 20 and she didn’t fancy cocaine and marijuana anymore, as Sandy introduced her to fentanyl and she got hooked again! She couldn’t feel worthless again and she couldn’t feel pain also. She felt loved, not by people but by this substance. A very sick and toxic relationship, you can say.
One Saturday morning, after the usual hit from a Friday’s night party, Katie went over to Sandy’s room to get her out of bed as usual, but she found out that Sandy had passed away during the night. She had an overdose of Nicotine. Katie was shattered and resolved never to use drugs again. But as the saying goes, “it is easier said than done”. Few days after Sandy’s demise, Katie was right back into drugs. That’s how hard these things are. It wasn’t easy to take the first steps into freedom, and Katie struggled.
She then realized that she needed help and she decided to talk to a therapist. That was how Katie’s journey to freedom began. It’s been two whole years since Katie became clean and sober. But the realization that she and Sandy were young and had so much ahead of them and Sandy couldn’t make it but she did, has never left her. The good news is that, she was given another chance to make things right – which might not be the end result of every case.
