When you’re a teenager, it’s easy to believe that the rest of your life is far enough away that you don’t need to worry too much about what’s happening tomorrow, next week, or even next year – much less make choices that will impact the rest of your life.
And when it comes to friends, it’s hard to believe that the people you choose to spend your time with can completely change your future, but when you think about it, it makes sense.
Like a train without a track, if your friends are off the rails and going nowhere, what’s to stop it happening to you?
Right Track ambassador Jonathan Beninca knows all too well that choosing your friends carefully is a wise move.
At 13, Jonathan fell in with the wrong crowd and at 19, Jonathan’s choice in friends played no small part in the decision that changed his life.
“When I first started drinking I believed it gave me more confidence and that people liked hanging around me, when in actual fact they were laughing at me and nobody really wanted to be around me,” he said.
Friday the 15th January 1999, the day 19-year-old Jonathan lost his leg, arm, and several fingers on his left hand when he was run over by a train, was just like any other day – he was off to see his friends, can of bourbon in hand. Perhaps the right friend might have helped prevent the situation by having the guts to tell Jonathan his drinking was a problem.
It’s a small decision that led Jonathan to lose his limbs, and change the course of the rest of his life.
You make decisions like that every day – who you hang out with, what you get up to, maybe what your friends pressure you to do?
There’s no way to know in advance where your choices will lead you, but why not stack the odds in your favour and surround yourself with real friends, not “friends” like Jonathan used to have?
You wouldn’t bother to get on that train with no tracks and expect to move forward, so why spend time with people that will lead you nowhere?