“Hobby with a Bad Habit/Secret” Chapter 4

An Awaken up in his late 20’s

There came a time where he found himself at work on a smoke break when all the sudden he started coughing up blood. It was then he knew he needed to change his life.

By this time he had moved back home with his parents. After smoking weed and cigarettes for over a decade, he knew it would be hard to stop. So he came up with an unique idea. That was to quit smoking cigarettes first. To do this he would smoke just a little weed every time he felt the need to smoke a cigarette. It was hard of course but it worked after a few weeks of just smoking a hit or two of weed the need to smoke a cigarettes went away. After that he stopped smoking altogether and surprisingly the addiction to weed was not strong, so it was easier to quit.

Now being back at home with his parents and changing his life style meant losing his old friends and making himself lonely. He still had some friends and family but going to parties or hanging out meant being around the things he wanted to change.

Living at home again he rediscovered his love for games and a greater love for alcohol especially strong alcohol like whiskey. He figured it was no harm and at least it was legal. This is where his drinking alone begins his bad habit and dark secret.

One New Year’s celebration he decided to spend it with his parents and not go out to his friends. They didn’t want to go anywhere but stay home. He also felt the same. So while everyone was partying the new year, he found himself having a quiet dinner and watching television with a movie after dinner. Well before midnight his parents went to bed and he would find himself alone. So, he took his bottle of whiskey and cola to his room and turned on his computer to play World of Warcraft and drink and play with unknown people online there.

This turned into a daily fun activity for him. It didn’t effect his work, he showed up everyday and worked with no problem after drinking. He was happy and enjoying what he was doing though lonely but okay.

Then came a time he felt his current job wasn’t going anywhere. He decided to go back to college and finish his degree he had tried to start a decade before. In fact he did really well going back and it was easy and fun taking courses there. However he was much older than most of the other students there and found he didn’t fit in really well with any of his classmates. So he just did his studies as his job and go home to play games and drink until drunk.

This became a normal thing to him and a habit. Never did he think it was bad or a problem. To him he looked forward to coming home to play, relax and drink.

There came a time when one of his teachers came to him and asked him if he was interested in studying in another country to improve his study of that country’s language. He felt honored to be asked and excited to go.

He went on a study program for a semester in a university there. Even there he found himself alone and lonely but he had his computer and his games. Also of course his drinks.

To him he wasn’t lonely at least not in his mind. He had of course new friends there but like before felt too old and not well fitted in with them. It didn’t bother him that much he had his study’s, his game, and his drinks. He did everything that everybody did there as well toured the country studied well and enjoyed his time there. But his secret nobody knew and he kept doing it.

Halfway through his semester there his teacher back home contacted him again with another offer of working there and teach English for a year and get paid while continuing studying the language. She wanted someone from her class to be the first to go and show the others it was something okay to good to others. This was also on his 30th birthday, So he thought about it and with the pay being good and nothing else better going for him, he accepted and started another change in his life.