First one.

I am concerned. This concern is part of the reason I started this blog. I had a blog before but I gave up on it because I tried to write witty, insightful things and I became frustrated. This time I'm just going to try to speak my mind.
My concern is for some people I used to go to school with. I am in college now, and have very little contact with the people I graduated with, other than a select few. This is in part because I have never enjoyed having a large circle of friends. And it's also due to the fact that out of the 32 people I graduated with, I can honestly say I only got along- truly connected with- about half a dozen. Anyway, recently it has come to my attention that some people I used to know- a few of whom I considered friends while I was in school- have adopted the rebellious lifestyle of so many disillusioned youth who attended private Christian school against their will. Despite being intelligent enough to know that this sort of behavior is not only often improper and foolish, it's also detrimental to one's health, these people have apparently taken up smoking, drinking, wild partying, lounging around with provocatively clothed prostitutes (well...that's what they look like to me, anyway!) and some drug use. All of these people are between the ages of 19 and 20. Most of them appear to have completely rejected the faith that their parents tried to raise them in. Most of them have either dropped out or flunked out of college (I only know a few that made it past freshman year). Pictures of them online almost always include at least eight cans of beer (empty, of course), and someone's usually shirtless and doing something stupid. Most of them don't even have a job. They spend what money they do have on cheap beer and endless supplies of cigarettes, and then tell me they don't have the money to buy gas. They sleep on friends' couches and eventually come crawling back to their parents, begging for cash, before they are once again kicked out of the house.
I am disturbed by this for several reasons. One obvious one being concern for the safety and well-being of my so-called "friends". Another is concern for their spiritual well-being. And another, the fact that they graduated from the same school that my brother now attends. What is different about them that he won't fall into the same situation? After all, these people were raised the same way I was, and I have never been inclined to touch a cigarette, much less spend my weekends in a drunken, smoky haze, unaware of my surroundings. I don't sleep around (ew) and I have a job. I haven't even lost any of my scholarships. Yet. What makes me special? I don't get it! I don't mean to make myself sound better than my fellow alumni, I really don't. I actually care a lot for some of the people involved in these sorts of situations. We used to be pretty close. Then graduation rolled around, and invitations to graduation parties were suspiciously absent from my mailbox. I have since found out that I wasn't invited, or even kept in the loop with these people, because of the alternative lifestyle I lead- the lifestyle of valuing my lungs and liver and possessing some moral fortitude, I guess. Did they think I was going to narc on them?
Maybe. Maybe I would have. Notice that none of these people is 21 yet. That's the legal drinking age. I remember being in the car with a young man I used to be particularly close to, on a night long ago that we had tried to revive our once wonderful friendship. We were at Taco Bell and he started talking about all the exploits he had had since his graduation a few months before. I became increasingly upset, disgusted, and disturbed, and asked to be taken home. On the way we picked up two of his classmates (18 at the time) and they immediately began counting their change and figuring out how many Coronas they could afford and who could "score" the beer for them.
I don't know why I felt the need to share this. I really am bothered by things I have found out in the last few days. I have one "friend" whose Facebook account is in danger of being deleted because he depicts drug use in his profile picture, one "friend" who is relishing in her newfound lesbianism, and another "friend" who recently gave an inflammatory (by my standards) speech recently to her class about the so-called dangers of raising children in a religious home. The text of this speech was followed by incindiary comments from both this "friend" and her colleagues, slandering evangelical Christianity and its followers. Apparently she forgot that this particular brand of faith is what many of her former classmates (and people she still calls close friends) subscribe to.
If you think about it, pray for the people I know (who shall remain nameless). I am seriously surprised that I haven't heard of one of them dying in some alcohol related car wreck yet.