Brighter Future Scholarship: Winning Essays

“I tried my best to pretend that everything was ordinary, but I could not deny the drastic shift I felt in my family… Day by day, my idea of a family drifted.”

“My mother on the other hand was an alcoholic. I’m not sure when this started but I have vivid memories of me holding her hair back as she threw up in the bathroom.”

“Dealing with mental health at a young age is the most damaging thing I’ve experienced. I would know because I have a list. Yeah, I know. Why would I…”

“Addiction is not a solitary disease. It is like a stone thrown in a pond, causing a ripple effect that disturbs any and all surrounding calm.”

“My parents grew up completely isolated from drugs and alcohol until they went to high school. My dad hit ninth grade and started dealing.”

“This experience has made me realize that those who can overcome addiction or substance abuse should not be looked down upon!”

“While being a universal experience, the taboo nature of mental illness and discussions of mental health can make a very common situation seem abnormal.”

“Because of my father’s addiction, I learned to hate the sin, but not the sinner. I don’t let my past mark me who I am today.”

““You have thirty minutes to pack your bags and leave,” they commanded sternly. 30 minutes that changed my life forever. Though I was confused and jarred, I frantically…”

“Because of the pandemic,  I couldn’t see him in person. It might sound sickening, but I preferred it this way. A simple “end call” and I no longer had to think about the whole situation.”

“Due to my grandfathers’ addictions, I never got to talk to them, and I never got to hug either of them, because they had made their decision, and they didn’t choose family, they chose alcohol.”

“Having a sibling that has an addiction to one of the strongest drugs out there is literally one of the hardest things I have ever experienced in my life, it’s grieving the loss of a living family member.”

“What happened to my father from the time that he was a healthy young athletic to the patient who is frequently in hospitals was a two-year history of drug addiction.”

“Wednesday haunted me like the ghosts and monsters I feared at night in my childhood bedroom. Each week, it just lurked in the middle waiting to get me.”

“Without addiction my parents could have potentially still been together, and I wouldn’t have had to grow up with a separated family.”

“ My mind would grow dark and wander off to these dark thoughts, negatively impacting my mental stability. I was alone again, just as I was when I was a little girl afraid of the dark. “

The thing about addiction that people may not realize, is it can be a camouflaged agent of poison: unnoticeable and kills slowly.

“That was the day when I learned alcoholism ate away at people until there was only a shell left, and that our little “secret” wasn’t so little after all.”

“My mother is a kind and loving person, but this didn’t stop alcohol from consuming her life. It was only when I became older that I realized…”

“I had feelings of anger when I thought about her potential and how I wish I had the options she had… Mostly, I was and still am sad. I miss having a big sister.”

“Growing up, my uncle was always the life of the party. He had a big personality, a contagious laugh, and a heart of gold. But as I got older, I started to realize that there was something else going on with him.”

“The greatest thing a person can do for themselves is to help someone else, and this is a calling that I feel is an expression the love I experienced by being saved. “

“In some ways, I’ve learned that I need to put myself first and make sure that I am okay before I try to help others, but I also realized that helping people is something ingrained in me and who I am.”