Why are so many kids from my graduating class in trouble for drugs now or in the past?

Recently I was contacted by the sister of a childhood friend who was now in prison. The sister stated that her brother had not had much contact with people from his life.  This made me start thinking.
Since moving back to the town I graduated high school from I have learned that many of my classmates have either been in prison or are currently in prison. Most of them have been arrested for a drug offense.

This made me wonder. Why? Why are so many of my former classmates ending up in prison? Is it because of limited opportunity in the small town? Is it because of the apparent drug problem in the small town? Maybe it's that most of us come from single parent homes where we were not supervised and were able to become involved in this particular type of life. Why was it the choice of so many though? Were they masking problems? Were they trying to escape something?

All though I was never caught or arrested for the bad behavior choices in my past I know what my reasons were for this of behavior. I was trying to forget my circumstances, I was trying to escape abuse in my past and I was trying not deal with any of these issues.

Is it possible that so many kids in one location also were dealing with similar circumstances?

Some people just can't help but cause drama

When I moved back to the town I graduated high school in I wanted to find an opportunity to continue my community service as I would no longer be able to volunteer for the crisis center I had previously been doing.

I evaluated several opportunities in the community - going to a new crisis center, hospital, nursing homes, animal centers and I decided I really wanted to work with animals. In the beginning I truly enjoyed working with the animals. I enjoyed spending time with them, working on obedience training, exercise and play time!

Then the animal center manager asked if I would like to be more involved and take over the volunteer coordinator position. I thought about it and decided to give it a try. However, the more involved I became the more I realized all the responsibilities of the volunteer coordinator position truly required this to be a paid position. I approached the manager and discussed this with her and the fact that money would have to be given to support this. I provided her with a list of grants that helped provide funds for this position but never heard anything back from her.

I continued on with the role, recruiting and training new volunteers, locating community events opportunities and participating in spreading awareness in the community to the needs of the shelter and the animals in need of homes.

Towards the end of last year I noticed that the center manager and animal services manager both began to behave in hostile ways towards me. I was informed by new volunteers that the 2 managers were telling staff members that I was saying things about them, I began receiving complaints by the volunteers about the 2 managers  were treating them badly and etc. I tried to speak to the 2 managers but the hostility just grew worse. By the time the new year rolled around I decided there was too much drama involved with actually being involved with the personnel at the center and decided I wanted to strictly work with the animals after the new year.

 During this winding down period at the end of the year I noticed that many of the volunteers were no longer returning, the public comments on the social media pages were often complaints of how they were treated by staff members and that the over all general feeling about the center was that it was  being run by people were not nice, did not care about the animals, and were often rude to the public and often were unable to be reached by phone or email.

I let the staff know I would no longer be able to participate in the volunteer coordinator position because of this and that I would go back to strictly just working with the animals. Then suddenly the treatment became even more hostile.

I am one of those persons who use to let this type of behavior upset me but over the past few years I started eliminating behavior and people who behave this way from my life.
It saddens me that people who are supposed to care about finding homes for animals behave this way and drive many in the community to view them harshly and not want to support the animal center.

Even though I wanted to continue on with my community service I have had to decide that for my own sanity  can not be associated with an organization that makes me feel like I am beating my head against a wall when it comes to trying to improve services, improve the animals lives and provide a quality service for the community.

Really, just how many frogs do I have to kiss?

It's been awhile since I updated on the dating front because I just can't believe some of the men (or boys should I say) I have met or been set up with. In the past couple of years I often have wondered exactly what do my friends think of me based on the personality of the men they are introducing me to or are they just thinking, "oh he's single, she's single.....that's perfect"  believe me that is not enough!

I have met or been set up with men who have wanted to move in after a few dates, men who want to drop their kids off with me after a couple of dates, men who are immature, men who don't have jobs, men who drink too much, men who are almost 40 and think they are hiding their drug problem, men who start with telling lies right off the bat - obvious lies - and after all these dates over the past 7 years all I can wonder is exactly what about these men did people think made them perfect for me or are they making a comment on what they think about me?

It's hard being the single childless girl in a world of friends who are all married with children.

Insomnia

A nap in the Texas spring sunshine is a lovely thing but it can be a disastrous thing for evening bed time. 

I sit here spending the time I should and want to be sleeping thinking about work making a mental list of all the tasks I need to accomplish to help make my business grow and become more productive, so I get my phone out and I jot down all the things I need to do. If I get them out of my head maybe I can go to sleep, right? Wrong! After I write the list I snuggle up to NaKoda and think I can go to sleep now, but then I sit there thinking about what a good dog and companion she has been and how she's getting older, and how sometimes she has been the only set of ears I have had to confide to, and of course then that leads to how we need to exercise more to be healthier and one thought leads to the next, to the next, until it's 3am and I am sitting here writing my next blog entry.

I guess the past few months have been really busy and hectic and stressful and I just can't settle my mind but I think it's partly because I have let myself get off balance too. Maybe if I wasn't stressing so much over work or my house, or anything else to be honest I wouldn't have so much trouble sleeping and I could have less anxiety over all the things I sit and think about at night when I should be sleeping.