I believe people can change.
When I was younger, I witnessed my sister Kristy dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. She was always in and out of the house and I barely saw her at this time. When I did see her she was constantly getting in fights with my parents over numerous things. She was caught stealing, writing false checks, drinking, and using methamphetamines. The list kept getting longer and my parents were struggling and could hardly deal with it all anymore.
Things got so bad with her that we were forced to move to Placerville because some of her druggy friends were threatening our family. My parents had to keep a gun near the door for our own safety, so they had no other choice but to pack up everything and move my brother, my other sister, and I to Placerville and send Kristy to her grandparent’s in Stockton.
When we moved to Placerville I didn’t see my sister more than twice for a period of two years. She continued to make friends with the wrong people, try different drugs, and get in trouble with the police. She was barely making it through high school and couldn’t keep a job for more than a couple of months. She kept with this unhealthy life style all throughout her high school years and didn’t seem to get any better.
When I was in sixth grade she moved back in with us again because she had somehow graduated high school and had lived in Sacramento for a while but couldn’t afford an apartment. My mom laid down some rules and she promised to abide by them. Things got a little better over that time and we shared a room and I loved living with her. Even though she’s done all of these horrible things, she is really one of the best people I know. She cares a lot about my brother and I and we had a lot of fun living with her. She wasn’t the best role model but we always had good times. Right when things were going good in her life with a steady job we got a knock on our door one evening. The county sheriff’s department was there to take her to jail for one too many DUIs. I watched my mom cry hysterically while my sister got handcuffed and put in a police car. I wasn’t allowed to go visit her, so I didn’t see her for at least six months.
The weekend I got back from science camp for a school field trip she was home again. She looked really bad and it was hard seeing my family being awkward and weird with each other. Things were tense, but she must have thought long and hard about her life because she drastically changed for the better. It was one of those situations where the good came out of the bad. She was determined to turn her life around and she did. She moved to Santa Cruz and got a good job and now she is engaged to be married to a really good guy. I can see my mom is relieved and not so stressed anymore and it’s nice to see her actually proud of my sister.
I worried about her for a long time and now I never do. She is living proof that people can change. If people have the motivation to turn their life around, they can do it. It may take years to get to where you want to be in life, but if you have the right attitude about it anyone can change.