<p>I'm currently a student Arizona State University and will be leaving due to a medical withdrawal wanting to remove myself from what I have gotten myself into and having a fresh new start at a new college. l will be looking to transfer to UCF in the Fall. However, I may be considered a freshman coming in since I will have less than 30 credits. Part of the reason why I'm leaving is because my health got affected by doing drugs (marijuana, ecstasy, mushrooms, and painkillers). One night after doing ecstasy I really was unsure if I was going to make it through the night, walking around campus seeing light appear and feeling as if I was about to collapse. After this night I knew my drug use had to stop. Luckily, I noticed I needed to get away from these drugs before I found myself in the hospital or possibly even dead. </p>
<p>Now my question is, is it a good idea or not to write about overcoming a drug addiction for your college essay, since it's great that I overcame a major life challenge, however it has to do with drugs. </p>
<p>So should I go with this topic or should I just push that aside and keep my essay topic to something else?</p>
<p>Any advice or experience with writing on a topic such like this would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I commend your effort to get away from drugs and make a new start. However, I recommend you NOT bring this up on your application. You would be admitting to breaking the law and also raising questions about your stability. Think about it from the point of view of the admissions committee. They have an obligation to protect the community. You have the benefit of knowing you are determined not to backslide; they don’t.</p>
<p>If you were ever arrested, that is a different matter because you will have to account for it.</p>
<p>I’m hoping to go back to my high school and see if they’ll let me talk in front of their seniors that are going to college to warn them about drug use and the effects it can have on your life. If that goes well, I plan on going to a few other high schools around my area doing the same thing. Hopefully I can save a few lives by doing so. I’m also hoping it’ll show I’m serious about not going back to that life style and that I want to help those going through what I did and hopefully deter the younger kids from even thinking about starting a lifestyle such as mine the past few months. I feel like people my age would have the best success talking to those a year younger than me about drug use. It’s more realistic to them then say when a thirty or forty year old that used to be addicted to drugs comes in to talk to them. Not too mention I was their classmate just last year.</p>
<p>And to touch on tk21769’s comment, I was arrested actually for drug paraphernalia, which led to the ending of my marijuana use. In Arizona it’s a felony, but it was knocked down to a misdemeanor since I was honest and cooperative. How will this effect me?</p>
<p>…you do realize drugs are available almost everywhere, right? UCF isn’t exactly the exception, and I’m sure their admissions knows it, so writing about “transferring to get away from the drugs” probably isn’t the best idea.</p>
<p>To yurtle’s comment, I’m totally aware you can get drugs obviously. However, the reason I’m transferring is to get a new start, where I can re-do making new friends again, one’s that aren’t associated with drugs. </p>
<p>As for shrinkrap’s comment, it’s been a month so far. You can say that’s still early, however that’s a long time when you compare that to how often I was using them. I’ve gotten to the point where I know I’m over them. My death scare was exactly what I needed to know that I needed to make a change. The point where I knew I was totally over all of it was when I told my parents every drug I used and how often. That was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life.</p>
<p>It sounds like it depends on exactly how I write the paper to decide whether or not I should choose that topic. However, it sounds like I might have to explain myself anyways for my arrest, so maybe I should just explain myself in the essay. But then again, it also depends on UCF’s application as I was not convicted of a felony, just a misdemeanor and if I’m correct isn’t a speeding ticket a misdemeanor in certain states? So I may not even have to mention that.</p>
<p>“it’s been a month so far. You can say that’s still early, however that’s a long time when you compare that to how often I was using them. I’ve gotten to the point where I know I’m over them”.</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t know the extent of your problems, but anybody who deals with this regularly (like me), would be pretty worried to hear someone in your situation say that.</p>
<p>BTW, I believe what your proposing is called “doing a geographical”.</p>
<p>NO NO NO… Never go on record that you had a drug problem. Don’t even write about personal drug use in a paper for school. You never know who or what you will be in the future, and documenting drug use could be a very bad thing for you later in life. </p>
<p>As for the month clean and sober, congrats. I hope you can stick with it, I’ve lost friends and family to drugs. While changing your “scene” is key to keeping clean I have to agree w/Shrinkrap. Going from Arizona to Florida is pretty drastic and isn’t a gaurauntee to sobriety. Yes, find new friends, things to do, places to be, ect. Just don’t expect Orlando to be your salvation. Find peace with yourself.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your turn-around. I wish you the best, and hope you can stay clean and continue your education.
As far as essays go, though, I’d steer clear of it. As others have mentioned, your essay might be more worrying for admissions committees than encouraging - they don’t want to bring someone into their community who -as far as they know - might relapse or somehow be a ‘negative influence.’ Additionally, admissions essays are often considered part of the public record, which means it could come up in the future.</p>