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Cordes: 'Every drink, every drug robs you later in life.'
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| By: Ryan Wilson, Staff Reporter |
October 26, 2009 |
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In kicking of Red Ribbon Week Friday, Billy Dean Cordes joked with middle and high school students about their parents and friends and told them how one bad decision could adversely the rest their lives.
"You don't need drugs and alcohol," Cordes said the end of his presentation, and after joking about how different people laugh he said, "Every drink, every drug robs of you that later in life, that feeling ... You don't see it now, but it robs you of that joy later in life."
People who drink and use drugs "maybe living large" in their 20, but they are sad by their 30s and depressed in their 40s, Cordes said.
Everyone knows who someone --a family member or a friend -- who can't get it together, who always seems to be in trouble, who can't make a decision, who doesn't seem to know what they want to do with their life, he told the middle-school and high school students.
"I'm not saying they're that way because they did drugs or alcohol when they were younger, but a lot of times it is," Cordes said.
Those people who can't get it together weren't always that way, he told them. The frontal cortex of the brain isn't fully developed until 24- to 25-years-old, and by drinking or doing drugs, "that part of the brain stays 14, 15, or 16 years old," he said.
"You don't want to be in that situation," Cordes said.
That is not to say you can't make mistakes, he told the kids. Everyone makes mistakes, he said.
"How many of you have done dumb things?" he asked the kids. A lot of hands went up. "How many of you have done things you knew were dumb before you did them, but you did them anyway?" he asked. About as many hands went up. "Those are the dumbest things of all!" he said.
How you respond to your mistakes is what makes the difference, he told them. He encouraged the kids to take responsibility for their mistakes, to learn to laugh at them, and not be ashamed, blame it on others, deny it or quit; because those four things are the opposite of responsibility. People become victims when don't take responsibility, he said.
"You can learn to laugh, and laughter is a choice, by the way," he said. "You didn't have to laugh today ..., and every time you laugh I know something about you. I know you understand joy, I know you have a child-like person inside you that wants to have fun, that wants to have joy. Wouldn't it be great to have that action, that fun for the rest of your life? Wouldn't that be amazing?
"Every drink, every drug robs you of that," he said. "Some people are like, maybe I'll rob myself a little. Folks, you know as well as I do that habits are tough to break. Nobody ever thinks something bad is going to happen to them. So I say, to be on the safe side, make a decision right here and right now, make a decision with your friends and your brothers, when you get to high school that you're not going to mess up your lives, that you're going to find other ways to have fun, because it's much better without it."
He stood just a little ways from the east wall of CCCMS, representing where the middle school are now in their lives, with the rest of the gym representing the rest of their lives. What the kids do there, has an impact on all of what they're able to do in the rest of their lives, he told them.
"Wouldn't be great to live all of this," he points to the majority of the gym, "with the quality you've lived this?" He points to the small space between him and the wall.
"Someday you're going to be able to look back on you're lives and you're going to say, wow, I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of the person I am, and I have no regrets. Wakefield, Clay Center, let me let you in on a little secret - living to learn with no regrets is a great way to live."
Cordes' program was sponsored by the Fort Riley Substance Abuse Center.
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©Clay Center Dispatch 2009
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