ESSAY CONTESTS
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1st "Through My Eyes" Gold Beach Essay Contest Winners

Students from Gold Beach High School's Leadership class wrote nonfiction essays, anonymously or giving their names, about the impact of alcohol on their lives for April, 2009 (Alcohol Awareness Month). The top five essays appeared throughout the month in the Curry County Reporter, beginning with Honorable Mention essays and ending with the First Place winner.

First Place Winner

Second Place Winner

Third Place Winner

Honorable Mention

Honorable Mention

First Place Winner - Elissa Hawkins

Aunt Kathy's funeral was a somber event

I have never drunk alcohol, and have no desire to do so. Although I have been exposed to its use, I have seen the risks and witnessed the consequences that come with drinking. I have seen it used amongst my peers, but the person that I saw drink that has influenced me to be abstinent the most is my Aunt Kathy.

My grandparents owned a bar in a rural part of Oregon. It was a small, family owned and operated establishment that served the same group of people every night. All of their children were expected to help out at the bar taking orders, waiting on people, cooking, and cleaning. This work put my aunts, uncle and father in an atmosphere every day that would influence their alcohol use for the rest of their lives.

Although all of the siblings, my father included, had stints of alcoholism, my Aunt Kathy had it worst. She began partying during high school, and her alcohol abuse continued all through her life. Early in her twenties, she met and married a man, and together they drank nonstop. Together, their alcoholism led to bigger and better drugs, including marijuana.

After the birth of her two children, my Aunt Kathy seemed to have realized that alcohol was not the answer to all of her troubles. This period of her life was short lived, however, and within a few years she was back to her old ways. Inevitably, her son dropped out of high school, her daughter was sent to live with her grandparents, and her marriage ended. This led to her total dependence on alcohol.

A few, short years later, my grandmother had a stroke and my grandpa couldn't take care of her as much as he would have liked to. The whole family was asked to help out in any way they could. Being next door neighbors, it was my father's duty to take care of the day to day care, but soon, the stress of this role grew and my father couldn't do it all on his own. This is when my Aunt Kathy offered to help out and stay at their home for one or two weeks every month and take a turn caring for her parents. It was during this time that the family found out just how dependent my aunt was on alcohol. She was drunk the entire time she was at their house, and soon started taking large amounts of pills to help her body with all the effects the alcohol was having. These medications had side effects too, the main being drowsiness, which took away her ability to care for my grandparents when she was taking them.

Shortly after the news about my Aunt's dependence was spread through the family, my Aunt met a man and in a few short months, they were married. This new man had a positive influence on my aunt, and she quit drinking all together. After just two months, though, she was in the hospital, and her health was deteriorating rapidly. She had to quit drinking alcohol so suddenly that her body was going through such major withdrawals that it was shutting down. She had liver failure, which caused her to lose large amounts of weight in a short period of time and her stomach to swell. When we went to see her at the hospital, just a few days before she died, she looked like she was more than 9 months pregnant and about ready to give birth.

My Aunt Kathy's funeral was a somber event. The realization of the effects of alcoholism hit everyone in the family, causing everyone to give up the addictive drug for good. After seeing what she went through, everyone that she hurt, and everything that she did, I vowed never to drink. Through her pain and suffering, I learned the hard way what alcohol could do to a person. It is because of her that I choose for today, and the rest of my days to come, to never drink alcohol.

 

Second Place Winner - Julia Denning

I have an addictive personality

I have an addictive personality. I remember the cake walk at the Riley Creek carnival so long ago. I spent an hour walking circles in time to dorky music in hopes of winning a cheesecake, and when I finally won, I realized it wasn't that wonderful, especially considering the money I had spent on tickets.

I also remember, around the same time, my obsession with eating. I ballooned into an overweight elementary student, although sports and knowledge of health eating habits remedied that eventually. I've even been addicted to cleaning, prone to panic attacks when my sister's half of the room looked unrecognizable. I've learned how to manage all of these addictions over the last decade, but there are certain things I will never try, certain things I will never risk an addiction to. I decided long ago that alcohol will never touch my lips.

As a child, I relished vacations to San Diego, where my favorite boy cousins lived. I loved visiting Matthew and Caleb, and have fond memories of playing with snails, sitting in Matthew's wheelchair, and swinging in the playgrounds. For years, I was unaware of the reason Matthew's legs hung limply. When my parents thought I was ready, they told me the saddest story I've ever heard. In December of 1998, my father's missionary sister and her family were on furlough from Papua, New Guinea. They were driving in central Oregon when a car swerved into their lane and caused a head-on collision. My aunt broke her back, my uncle fractured his leg, Caleb escaped uninjured, Matthew was paralyzed from the waist down, and my five-year-old cousin Casey died. The driver was drunk.

I've never been invited to a party, possibly because my father was most of my classmates' principal at one time, but I like to think that it's because everyone knows what my answer to his or her invitation will be. I will never let myself succumb to any pressure to drink. If I take even one sip, I may lose all self-control. I may take another sip, then another, until the night becomes a blur. I may become addicted, like I was to winning, to food, and to cleaning. But worst, I may grab my car keys at the end of the night, and I may get behind the wheel of my car and drive home.

I've spent hours wondering how close Casey and I would have become if I had ever known him, and it breaks my heart to think that I could potentially take the role of the drunk driver that took his life away. I know it's inevitable that I will be addicted to some things in life, like travel and, perhaps, cleaning, but alcohol will never make the list. As a tribute to my cousin, and to those whose lives have been devastated as a result of drinking, I will never let alcohol touch my lips.

 

Third Place Winner - Anonymous

It was late at night when it got the worst

It was usually late at night when it got the worst. It would be my two sisters and my little brother and then me, all trying to hide from our alcoholic father. We would all be huddled together behind our bedroom door so that he could not come in to hurt us. Our mother would be trying to keep us safe by keeping us in our bedroom. But my mother got the worst of it, the physical and the emotional part. She would try to calm him down, but it only got worse. She would hide the liquor, but he always got it.

He always came home drunk, on drugs and very angry. The cops would always come and take him away. Sometimes he would come back. It was hard at times when my mom would cry because we would live with what happened to our family.

But I remember this one night he came back home drunker than ever and more furious than ever. All of us kids ran into the bedroom really scared and wondering why it always happens to us. But as soon as we knew, the cops came again and took him away again, but it felt different this time. It was like he was leaving our hearts.

When I was little I always wondered why he hated us so bad and why he wanted to make out lives so miserable. But as I got older I realized it was never us that made him the way he was. It was always the alcohol that made him the way he is today.

Now I'm almost 17 and know if I get into alcohol and drugs I now know what it would do to me and the people that love me deeply.

Someday I would like to tell my story and share the feeling on how it feels to be so forgotten and lost. I want to make a difference in this world by doing the right thing and passing it on.

 

Honorable Mention -Sydney Snook

I'm one of the lucky ones

At 15 years of age, and in the 10th grade, I have yet to take my first drink and I am very proud of it. And to be completely honest, I think of myself as one of the lucky ones. I am someone who is surrounded by friends at school who aren't into drinking either and don't pressure me into it or look down on me for deciding not to drink.

But the sad thing is that I am one of the few. Drinking just isn't in the cards for me. That's just not the person I am. I don't want to be just another teenage statistic.

Living in the small town of Gold Beach, lots of teens go to drinking as a cure for boredom. Sometimes high school students have too much time on their hands. Also, there are plenty of students that don't participate in sports and some that don't have a very good support system at home. Drinking is not something I have ever felt the need to try because I am a very busy person. I am really into my running and alcohol would just slow me down and hold me back from my full potential. When I graduate I have big plans on going to college and hopefully getting a scholarship to run there also.

I may not be the most "popular" or outgoing kid in school, but I am definitely not the one to make stupid decisions either. And one thing I do know is that I can sure hold my ground when it comes to drinking. I know what's right and drinking just isn't one of those things you should say yes to. It does take lots of self confidence that so many people don't have. Knowing yourself though is a very good start. And as a sophomore in high school, I couldn't be happier with my decision not to drink alcohol.

 

Honorable Mention - Anonymous

I lost my parent's trust

I told my parents that I was going to my Freshman Winter Formal dance. What I was really planning to do was to get drunk with my friends. This was a bad idea from the start, but the even worse idea was to take back one of our friends who had gotten drunk to the dance.

One of the teachers must have noticed something was up because they called the police. Unbeknownst to us, we hopped into a person's car that was going to take us to the next party but had not drunk yet. About 2-3 blocks after we pulled out from the dance I looked back in my rear view mirror to see red and blue lights flashing behind our car. I could not believe it. The driver pulled on to the airport road and came to a halt.

The feeling of about to be arrested made me scramble to try to cover up my bad deed. I tried to put gum in my mouth to mask the smell, but it was too late. The car had absorbed the smell from the alcohol coming out of our pores and coming off our clothes. There was no hiding from it. When the policeman came to our window and shone the lights in our faces, he knew. He asked us all to get out and take a breathalyzer test.

It is funny, because it is fun for a little bit when you drink alcohol, but believe me it is not fun anymore when you have lost yourself to the point where you don't know what you are doing with your life. It leads you down a path where you hurt other people by hurting yourself. I know that because of my reckless way of living I hurt my family to the point where they didn't know who their daughter was. She was sneaking out, hanging out with strange boys, and lying to them. They knew it was their last chance to get her back.

With the help of my parents, my life was going to take a turn for the better, but not without dire consequences. First, I had lost my parents' trust. I was no longer allowed to hang out with my friends, and I was made to work at their business for longer amounts of time than I usually had to. Because of my arrest and minor in possession charge, I was made to take drug and alcohol classes and I had my driving privileges suspended for a year. I had humiliated myself, my family, and my coworkers. I have to say that that was the worst feeling of all. The only person that you can let down is yourself when you drink. Don't give yourself excuses to do down the same path that I did. Don't try drugs and alcohol.

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