Quentin Downey

5-11-19

Senior Portfolio

Pride Sample

My pride sample contains something that isn’t physical but does have a big impact on my

life. My greatest accomplishment is me getting clean. I know I sound a little young to be saying

something like this and I was in denial for little bit, but it was impacting my life in more ways

than I realised it at first. If it wasn’t for my friends for pointing it out to me, who knows, I might

still be involved with that lifestyle. I wasn’t like addicted to any hardcore drugs I was hooked on

marijuana though, not to the point of addiction, because I could control myself, but I would

normally use it for like a reward for doing something productive such as completing an

assignment or something like that. The only reason I bring this up is because now that I’m sober,

I really noticed the differences in the two me’s. I would ditch school, usually not a full day but

like the last period of the day or I would show up late to school because I wanted to get high

before I went. I would have no money and I often found myself questioning my actions and

asking why is this what I really want to do? The second me, or sober me, I now have money in

my pocket, not as much as I would like, but that's only because I'm currently unemployed and

have no way of income. Also, now that I’m sober I’m meeting new people and losing contact

with the “older” people that were in my life. I mean this is a good thing for me because those

people won’t be around me to influence me to do wrong, but we were all cool with each other

and now those people are becoming memories and eventually forgotten. Actually, there are some
people who won’t be forgotten because of how unique the experience was, but I guess that’s

what memories are for.