“I was so stuck in my ways, my beliefs, my biases that I was determined to let no one persuade me out of them. Though I couldn’t be persuaded out of them, I couldn’t avoid the consequences of them, either. Drugs, sex, and partying had first been something I stumbled across, something I used to alleviate the dullness in life and the pain of loneliness. Now they were my god, my ultimate objective, my end goal. They were all that I lived for and they were the fuel that got me there. I was willing to risk my future for them.”