Life is a great adventure, but it’s not always easy. For all the joy, excitement and feelings of accomplishment we experience, there’s just as much sorrow, boredom and defeat.
It’s like any journey. You know you can deal with the easy parts; the challenge is how to get through the bad times.
The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange will start focusing on one aspect of those bad times in a few days when we profile Kyle Boyer, a teen from suburban Atlanta who went from a hopeless addiction to prescription drugs to recovery.
It wasn’t easy. Many people were hurt along the way, Kyle, of course, other kids, loved ones and his mom and dad.
In the end, with a lot of love and a lot of help from some new-found friends, he found hope and sobriety. But he’s the first one to say you have to fight every day to keep OxyContin at bay.
We wanted to use Kyle’s five-part series as an introduction to a new component we have at JJIE.org we’re calling Journeys.
This on-going format will allow for very personal stories from young people who have struggled in life as well as their family and friends who have been witness. We’ll also have experts adding their knowledge to the issue as well as professionals who will offer advice to both kids and parents.
Watch for the feature on our website, but we also want to hear from you. If you want to tell your story or if there is an issue such as addiction, juveniles and the law, mental illness, anything having to do with juvenile justice you would like to see covered, please let us know.
Kyle’s story of addiction is one of those bad spots along life’s road encountered by far too many of our young people today. The best way to deal with it and other issues and the best way to avoid all of those issues is to be informed.
That’s what we want to do here at the JJIE.
JF