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Here’s what Ranya had to say about:
Drugs and the kids who used them…
I actually did find it very difficult to hang out with her [her friend] after a while because I had never used substances before – and that’s something I really believe in – that I think that drugs and alcohol have a huge impact on your academic life and your social life and when you begin to use them you lose your priorities in your academic career. She started hanging out with people I wasn’t interested in hanging out with, but I was her friend and we had a great connection, and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t let drugs and alcohol get in the way of our friendship.
What drugs did to their relationship…
I told my friend that I was someone that didn’t use drugs and being friends with her was very difficult because she was constantly trying to find a way fix herself, or to fix her life, or catch up on exams, and she was sort of searching for a fake happiness with the drugs and the alcohol because she felt like at the time it was such a great thing. But when she woke up the next morning, or when she went to school, she was, you know, just in this really negative place and it became difficult for me to deal with that, and I said I wanted to help her.
How her perseverance paid off…
And so she said that wasn’t really fair because if I wanted to be her friend I should just be her friend and accept her for who she was. But I said at the same time I didn’t believe in that, and she should respect me and she owed it to herself – and to me – to give it a try. I told her if she gave it a try [staying clean and sober] and she didn’t like it and she chose to keep using the drugs and the alcohol that would be her decision. But I knew that when she gave it a try and stopped using the substances it would be a positive effect on her life.
How she got her friend to open up…
Well initially she tried to hide the fact that she was going out clubbing and, you know, drinking and using different sorts of drugs because she knew that I didn’t necessarily approve of those things in the friendship. However, after a while she just started telling me stories about the things that would happen to her over the weekend – sort of like girl talk – and it would come out and then I started pushing the issue a little bit and she was honest with me, which was something I appreciated because it allowed me to help her.
How she stays positive and avoids using drugs…
I think that me personally, the way that I see it, drug- and alcohol-free was just being really involved with different activities and being involved with positive people who help you move your life forward by getting opportunities. By being in clubs you sort of keep yourself busy and you meet people who [you] have similar interests with – then you don’t really need to use the drugs and alcohol. You have people to hang out with on weekends that don’t use drugs and alcohol. There’s also prevention groups at every high school that you can get involved with where you make great friends and, through those programs, there’s a lot of leadership opportunities and it really just helps you out to stay positive and to really just excel in life altogether.
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