Life Lesson

I'm not sure if many people read this anymore but I want to get this lesson out to the public somehow. I learned something today that was quite valuable. It started with me having to write an office referral for a student who was skipping my class. She immediately protested and pratcially begged me not to do it, but I was sure it had to be done. The reason for my need to write one was because I remember a very similar situation happening just a few years ago. In that situation, it was another girl who asked for her and a friend to go to the computer lab to print out a picture for a class project. It seemed innocent enough and so I let them go. 20 minutes later the ambulance arrived because one of them had overdosed on drugs and was lying on the floor in the bathroom. I then flash on other moments in my life that followed the same theme: my best friend in high school slamming in to a tree at 80 mph because he was drinking and driving, a 12 year old boy in my youth group passed out in his own vomit because he was drunk, another great high school friend sitting infront of a campfire, wearing a t-shirt and pants in 20 degree weather, and rocking back and forth uncontrollably because he was high on drugs; and the list goes on.
Personally, I am one of those who can honestly say I've never been drunk and I've never even seen a drug. I think the reason for that is because there were so many examples right in front of me that would completely discourge me from ever doing either. But what does this have to do with me writing a referral for some girl who skipped my class? The answer is that I have learned a lesson from the one mistake I made in all those examples. I never once told any of those friends, students, or anyone else to stop what they were doing. I didn't have the courage or knowledge to do so. But I want to start. I want to start with these students and even one day my own children. Therefore, so be it if my writing a referral makes this one girl a little uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable with writing referrals. I'm uncomfortable with conflict. But, if that referral jolts her in to the reality that small bad choices CAN lead to terrible choices than I have done my job.
So, there's my lesson for whoever reads this. If you know of someone who is taking things too far, talk to them. There's a great quote from Derek Webb of Caedmon's Call when he was speaking about someone he knew who committed suicide. "Sitting in that chapel with all those people who loved her, I was convinced that this tradgedy could have been prevented had she just taken 5 minutes to talk with any one of us." Imagine that. Just 5 minutes.