Kristen Martin
Bywater
English 101
Because I Got High I grew up in a family where I got to see the negative effects of drugs. My uncle Jeff has done drugs since he was 13 years old. All my life growing up, I remember him as a low life drug-addict; with a child he couldn't and didn't take care of because drugs controlled his life. He has cleaned up his act in the passed five years or so, but lately it seems as though drugs are coming back into his life. One week I spent at my grandmothers house, I learned that drugs aren't an easy thing to just walk away from. My uncle Jeff made it known to me that he is smoking marijuana again. I had suspected it for a while based on the way he had been acting, but now I knew that it was true. With this newly acquired knowledge, it made me wonder; if he is going to smoke weed with me in front of his daughter, what else is he doing behind closed doors? Jeff is a husky man. He stands five feet, eleven inches tall with blue eyes and short blonde hair. His daughter, Jaden, is someone who I always thought of as my own. Since she was a newborn, my family took her in and raised her because Jeff was a drug addict. When he went to rehab after Jaden was born, he came back and took full custody of her. He stayed clean for a while, then things went downhill. I was spending a few days after Christmas with my grandparents in Orange County. My uncle Jeff lives with them, so ideally I spent a lot of time with him. One night we went out on the back patio and I set up to smoke my hookah water pipe. We were just hanging out, drinking, and having a good time. I will always blame what happened next on the alcohol, but I know somewhere inside of me, I wanted it regardless. Jeff was smoking hookah with me and one of his friends came over and joined us. My uncle looked at me and said "How about we smoke some real shit, enough with this hookah crap." I immediately agreed and put my stuff away. I didn't want to smoke weed, at least I didn't think I wanted to. Until it became available to me. I always told myself that I will never smoke weed or do drugs, because I see what kind of effects it can have on a person and their family. All my morals went out the window that night. Jeff came back to the patio with a little pipe and some minty smelling, green, leafy stuff. I smelled it and didn't think it smelled like marijuana, but I still continued to smoke. I took a hit from the pipe and he told me to hold it in, so I did. It was suprisingly smooth and easy to smoke. It didn't bother me at that point. I completely forgot I was smoking weed until after I took a few more hits. I could barely walk and see straight. I vaguely remember a constant ringing in my ear and feeling as if the room was spinning; It was awful. I walked into the house, down to the bedroom and layed down. Jaden wasn't far behind and came to lay with me. She spoke to me as if she didn't know what I had just done, and I was hoping she didn't know. I looked at the clock and it said 8:16. It felt like I was waiting for an hour for my aunt to come back to the house with food, but in reality it was only about twenty minutes. That time I spent in the bed with Jaden, I remember talking to her and she was telling me how she wishes her dad would pay attention to her, and she feels like nobody is taking care of her. It was heartbreaking. Here was this girl I have loved and adored since she was born, and for her to have these types of feelings about her dad, I couldn't fathom ever disappointing her. Her dad is a let-down in her life, I don't want to be another one. She is a six year old little girl who deserves a family who loves her, cares for her, and I'll be damned if I am going to be another person who disappoints her in life. Jaden knew what weed was. She knew her dad was smoking. She didn't tell me she knew what we were doing though. When food arrived at the house, I walked down to the dining room. I sat across from my cousin Matt and his