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.”

“It was like he disappeared into thin air. I missed him so much. His big goofy smile. The jokes he told that would have me out of breath. The pointers he would give me at my basketball games. I was devastated, it still hurts whenever I think about how he used to be.”

“I get past all of my father’s struggles, mistakes, and addiction because I know he can get past them too. He’s inspired me to accept that we all have darker corners filled with fear and struggle.”

“I have always been so terrified of my father because of the way alcohol makes him act, and I cannot remember the last time my dad has made it through the day without being drunk by the end of it.”

“I watched as he ignored me throughout the years, as I grew up with a father, but not a dad. It always frustrated me to the brink of tears.”

“As the years passed, clarity emerged from the fog of uncertainty. I came to understand addiction not as a moral failing, but as a relentless disease, trapping those affected in a cycle of dependency and hopelessness.”

“I still see my mother, although not often. But I despise addiction. It took my mother from me.”

“Being in an abusive household and being abused mentally, physically, and verbally at a young age by someone who you thought cared about you is a really hard thing to process as a child.”

“I couldn’t go a day without using. Marijuana lit the world up, and it made things bearable.”

“It was at these clinics that I learned I am no better than the people around me struggling with addiction. There is a story behind every addiction and mistakes don’t make you a bad person, they make you human.”

“The most important thing I have come to realize about addiction is that it happens in all kinds of families and to all kinds of people. What matters most is how you deal with it. My dad did not believe that he could live without something to kill his pain. Because of that, he didn’t seek help and ultimately died.”

“Losing them was a cruel illustration of the disgusting consequences of addiction. It was a painful demonstration that addiction isn’t a choice but a merciless disease that has the power to control someone to the point of no return.”

“I am confident that I will lead a different life than my parents. My only wish is to make them proud. I am determined to graduate high school because my father couldn’t. My mother and father both did not graduate college, so I will. I plan to use my education to help others.”

“The silverware, like our family, had endured struggles, becoming tarnished with time and hardship.”

“My journey has been marked by navigating the complexities of addiction, understanding its effects on mental health, and aspiring to support others facing similar struggles.”

“Growing up lonely and naïve, I have built a delusion around me, this fake reality where everyone is happy, not a single clue of how things really are.”

“As my parent’s squeaky door creaked open, my legs became paralyzed, cemented in the hallway. There lay my dad, sprawled across the carpeted floor, with a pill bottle in his hand drowned in his saliva.”

“His addiction had fully changed him as a person for the worse; he would become so angry over little things and was completely consumed by substances.”

“He’s broken his neck, his heels, tore his femoral artery, and while he has fortunately survived every single time, his relationship with me and my family has died over time in return.”

“By the time Child Protective Services took me away to foster care, she had not only broken my arm at 4 months old but had made an incision across the entire right side of my body forcing me to get immediate surgery just shy of turning 6 months.”

“I became the quiet observer, the one who stayed strong while everyone else fell apart.”

“It was not until much later in my life that I recognized how many different forms of addiction there are, and how they can go by undetected, even in my own family.”

“My earliest memories are clouded with yelling, broken promises, and moments of silence so loud they left bruises. Addiction didn’t just live in our house, it ruled it.”

“Addiction along with the deeply sad loss of my father has changed my life forever in a way I didn’t believe was possible.”

“After all, only the bad guys get arrested. She wasn’t a criminal—she loved you, and therefore she was good.”