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Almost every week it seems a grim new milestone is set regarding overdose deaths in the United States. Under the radar of the increasingly publicized spread of fentanyl, the number of methamphetamine overdoses has surged dramatically, and these deaths are disproportionately affecting minority communities across our country. Although the media frequently mentions this ‘epidemic within a pandemic’ the government has been slow to act, with a greater degree of harm reduction funding finally being announced for 2022.
Against such a backdrop, the struggles of our society with alcohol, drugs, and addiction can seem hopeless at times. To kindle the flames of hope and with the aim of providing a deserving scholar with a thousand dollars toward their education, the team at Rehabs Of Armerica announced its inaugural edition of the ‘Making an Impact Scholarship’ in 2021.
A low barrier competition purposefully designed to be open to students of all sorts across the country, we asked only that the student be enrolled full time as of Fall 2021, and answer a single question with a 500-word essay: “How would you make an impact on the state of addiction in the United States”?
The response was resounding from all corners of the United States, with hundreds of entries from as far east as Bucksport, Maine, and as far west as Santa Barbara, California, the students submitting entries represented colleges across America and made judging a single winner incredibly difficult. With that said, we celebrate the winning entry of Makayla Armento and have published it in its entirety below.
However, in the spirit of the many, many truly ‘Honorable Mentions’ we received, it only seems fair to also give space to the dozens of deserving essays and entrants from across the country. From Furman University in South Carolina, to the many fine essayists at The University of Ohio, to the slew of articles from Colorado, as well as a substantial number from the dedicated scholars of Truckee Meadows Community College (outside Reno, Nevada) we were delighted at the sheer variety of entrants from across the country.
Although Washington state, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest as a whole were well-represented, the Lone Star State also laid claim to a number of wonderful essays, and a pair of authors from Hawaii was a pleasure to read as well. Despite having to choose a winner, we truly believe each of these essays has its own merits as a means of raising addiction awareness and leading grassroots efforts of students, academics, and addiction professionals to innovate and ‘Make an Impact’ on an issue that has come to define our times.
Many essays centered around practical experience regarding addiction in the writer’s own life or in the lives of family members battling alcohol or substance abuse, as well as a number of others who were first responders, veterans, corrections officers, or law enforcement members seeing the effects of addiction and noting it with their own, valuable perspectives.
A large number of entries mentioned the connections between upbringing and addiction, and more than a few high-stress careers were mentioned in the context of overcoming personal battles with alcohol, substance misuse, and mental illness along with addiction. The costs of drugs, both in a social context, as well as in several harrowing tales of personal addictions overcome, were another constant theme.
(Makayla’s Bio in Brief: I was born and raised in Denver Colorado. I am majoring in architecture and I want to eventually become an architect and travel as much as I can. )
The first lesson my father taught me was how to multiply by twos, the second was the fact that alcoholism ran in our blood. My father has been an alcoholic for as long as I can remember and perhaps he’s been one for longer than he can remember too. I don’t know who my father would have been had his life not been controlled by alcohol.
I grew up around drug addicts due to my father who passed down alcoholism like a family heirloom. I have a very close relationship with those suffering from addiction and they all have one thing in common, they cannot get help. My father did not have the resources to go to therapy as a young man, during the drunken talks he would have with me it became very clear he was hurting and suffering from things that had happened in his past. Trauma, abuse, addiction, and depression were all too common themes.
As a kid, I didn’t know any better, as an adult I know my father could have been helped with the right resources such as therapy and rehab. I ultimately think the issue had been accessibility to these resources, I recently asked my mother if she thought rehab would have helped my father and the one thing that stuck out wasn’t a yes or a no answer, it was the topic of the cost that she had brought up. It would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to start getting him help not to mention long-term care, in my household, this simply wasn’t an option as we aren’t financially gifted.
So my father paid the price, and his addiction still, to this day, has its grips on my father. Had accessibility not been an issue I don’t know who my father would have been, I’ve only ever known him as my alcoholic father, the one who laid hands on my mother, the one who laid hands on me, and the one who would threaten suicide. I doubt he would have done most of those things had he been able to receive the help he so desperately needed, and I will never know. I will never know that man and it truly breaks my heart.
Since then, I’ve had to cut my father out of my life seeing as the trauma he passed down to me became too much. When I told him I wanted to go to college he would say, “go to college, be better than I am.” Although addiction took my father away from me, I took those words to heart. I want to go to college and be what he never could. Winning this scholarship would allow me a better chance to be something more than my father, to break the generational habits that have been passed down. I watched my father throw everything away and nothing has driven me to be successful quite like it.
Thank you again for your wonderful submission and the efforts you’ve taken Makayla! With as many submissions as we received, the judging panel found it hard to winnow down even the ‘Honorable Mentions,’ as we sincerely felt each and every entry had its merits… But enough about the judges and onto the great essays themselves, broken down into the categories that constituted the main theme (or one of the central topics) of the work submitted. Without further ado, let’s begin with the ‘Honorable Mentions’ that centered on themes of raising awareness of substance misuse and addiction through educational efforts.
Edward lives and works in South Florida and has been a part of its recovery community for many years. With a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts, he works to help Find Addiction Rehabs as both a writer and marketer. Edward loves to share his passion for the field through writing about addiction topics, effective treatment for addiction, and behavioral health as a whole. Alongside personal experience, Edward has deep connections to the mental health treatment industry, having worked as a medical office manager for a psychiatric consortium for many years.
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