A Life Lesson My Late Grandfather Taught Me

Anne Frank once said "the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands." We all have that one point in our life where we try to be the opposite of what we are or sometimes try to fight what the history of our family holds but getting wrapped up in it more.

At a young age of twelve, my grandfather started to smoke weed which would eventually, by young adulthood, turn into heavy duty drugs such as crack and cocaine. The drugs played a heavy part in his life. His relationships were ruined, work was negatively affected, and sometimes he would go missing days at a time. The drugs messed with his brain and caused him to think things irrationally. Never stopping for a moment and realizing that he could be wrong. This caused people, family members included, to form their own personal opinions of him. The one thing that stood out to me the most though was that he never stopped loving his family and would do anything for them.

He decided to get clean.

He went to rehab and to AA meetings in order to correct the mistakes he made. Rehab helped him clean himself up. He would finally be able to spend more time with his family. Especially his grandchildren. He wrote to us once and told us to always stand by each other, be good to one another, to always love each other, and not to do what he did. He never stopped going to the AA meetings afterwards. He made sure he was always clean and would not go back to his old ways. Unfortunately, even though he got clean the damage was already done to his body and irreversible. By the time I got to high school he wasn't able to go to anymore of his AA meetings. The effects of doing drugs caught up to him  and he got severely sick. He taught me a very important life lesson to apply to my life. 

Own up to your mistakes, never deny them, and fix them. 

Make sure you are working hard for yourself and your family because the benefits at the end are always worth the trials of your consequences or goals/dreams. He did this by always owning up to the fact he did heavy drugs and made a mistake of letting that take over his life. If you ever asked him he would never deny it. This is a very hard thing for me to do and he inspired me to not be afraid of my mistakes and make sure to fix them. He worked hard to keep clean and be there for his family no matter what it took. He never stopped loving us and pushed himself to his limits. 

He showed me that it might be a long road to get what you want but the benefits along the way and in the end are worth it. 

Sippers, I hope you realize that lessons are always being taught indirectly and directly. It wasn't until his passing, that I realized what my grandfather taught me was to live my life to the fullest and how to better myself. 

Sippin' Pretty, Sippin' Strong,

Moli