First Draft

<p>So I think this is pretty good but I'm not sure if I sound a little bitter or if its even a good topic and I would really appreciate any feedback. Thanks!</p>

<p>In most places in America I would be identified as a minority due to my religion's acceptance of the Old but not the New Testament. Instead I have grown up in a town that is 50% Jewish. This does not mean that I have not found myself an outsider in some situations. Growing up in a town like mine I have been a part of two minority groups. On one hand I am one of the few residents who's family has truly experienced financial hardship. On a more personal level I am one of the few students at my school who has never consumed alcohol or other drugs. In a town that is nicknamed L-Town in reference to a unit of marijuana this has brought about a longstanding moral struggle as more and more of my friends have succumbed to the pressure and begun to use copious amounts of drugs. Their actions have not only hurt themselves but they have hurt those around them. While I am not writing to suggest that we are all saints, drug use is an activity that consumes a person's personality, leaving them a shell of their former self. Rather than mope about and move on from people who begin to feel that fun is impossible when one is sober, I have attempted to rehabilitate many of my former friends. Some of them I have had success where the town's multi-million dollar anti-drug program has failed. By connecting on a peer to peer level I have helped some students return to the straight and narrow path.
This moral stand has not always been easy though. Many people have rejected my attempts to help them and have continued to spiral down the slippery slope of drug use. To these people I can only wish them good luck from afar since I have effectively cut off all relations with these people. I have certainly lost many friends in this manner and some have truly come to hate me for my supposed arrogance but to quote my favorite president “I welcome their hatred.” If hatred is to be earned in any manner I would like it to be for trying to help a person. The fight to save an individual from a lifetime of drug and alcohol use is well worth it in my opinion.
I am cognizant of the fact that as overwhelming as the drug usage may appear at my school it is only worse on college campuses. No matter which school I attend there will be many who have a different set of moral values to mine and act differently than I would recommend. Despite this gloomy picture of the nature of man, I am confident in my ability to take the correct moral stand on the issues that matter to me and stay strong even in the face of pressure from my peers and even more so my true friends. What's right is right and that fact cannot be disputed.</p>