I chose the topic of adolescent drug use/addiction because
it is very near to my heart. With myself
being a woman in long term recovery from a substance use disorder I can
empathize with these young peoples’ struggles. My dabbling in drugs started in
middle school, but by my senior year in high school, I was being sent to my
first few treatment programs because I had progressed from dabbling to full-on
addiction. The statistics show how very common that is and I felt the class
should see that. Ultimately, if we have something that can play such a
monumental part in curbing these statistics or at least catering to them to get
in the solution, I just can’t find any logic as to why we aren't all jumping
and asking the question, “How can I help?”. I know that I am more inclined to
feel this way due to my personal experience but I also know that the majority
of people in our country have been affected in some way or at least know
someone who has been touched by this god awful disease of addiction. Bottom
line - there is a solution and I wanted everyone to know. I feel so often that ignorance is the reason for our avoidance of dealing with things.
I basically just broke down my pitch into topics of the
problem, the solution, what you can do, and the benefits. I gave shocking statistics
to show the reality of the problem and the statistics for the solution. I honestly
could have gone on all day to “show” the extent of the problem at hand, but
didn't want to overwhelm and confuse people with too many numbers, so I just
picked the ones that seemed to catch my attention more so than the others.
I normally struggle with speaking in front of a crowd, and I
had myself in panic mode initially for this assignment. Once I got up there and was speaking on a topic that I felt comfortably educated on, it really
wasn't bad at all. I truly think the small groups we do and the partner
assignment for the profile played a huge part in my confidence once I started
speaking. I was quite impressed by how much I actually enjoyed it, to be
honest!!
