Confession of a Former Drug Addict: Learning the Value of Family
Confession of a Former Drug Addict: Learning the Value of Family
Misguided Youth
“Oh now that I think back about it, I was really stupid when I was young and that my mother is really unfortunate to have a son like me!” Kong said as he ended with a short embarrassed laugh while he recounts the past he isn’t exactly proud of in mandarin. Kong, 36 , had spent most of his youth in and out of the drug rehabilitation centre and prison.
His parents separated while he was still young and their mother decided to bring him and his younger brother along to move into their grandmother’s place at Ang Mo Kio. Kong was the eldest among the grandchildren left in his grandmother’s care. With his mother busy at work to support the family and his grandmother busy attending the younger kids, the mischievous boy always finds the chance to sneak out of the house. It was then when he got acquainted and started hanging out with the older kids around his neighborhood. These are the friends that very much influenced and helped mold him into a teenage delinquent.
“I was encouraged by them to join their gang, to skip school and hang out with them. And it was then when I learn how to shoplift, cutting chain off bicycles to steal, extorting money from other kids and getting into fight for the most minor reason, just for the sake of getting into trouble and seeking thrill out of it.”, Kong explained how he was a wayward boy that followed whatever his peers instigated. “And it felt really good to be part of the gang and ‘cool’ to be doing things other normal ‘good’ kids didn't dare to do.”
It was then when young Kong’s misbehaviors and actions, prove that it can have direct consequence on his family, and the first to experience it was none other than his younger brother. Both brothers were studying in the same neighborhood secondary school. Kong’s truancy and bad records kept piling up and finally one day, he even threatened to hurt the school’s principal while being called to discipline.
Misguided Youth
“Oh now that I think back about it, I was really stupid when I was young and that my mother is really unfortunate to have a son like me!” Kong said as he ended with a short embarrassed laugh while he recounts the past he isn’t exactly proud of in mandarin. Kong, 36 , had spent most of his youth in and out of the drug rehabilitation centre and prison.
His parents separated while he was still young and their mother decided to bring him and his younger brother along to move into their grandmother’s place at Ang Mo Kio. Kong was the eldest among the grandchildren left in his grandmother’s care. With his mother busy at work to support the family and his grandmother busy attending the younger kids, the mischievous boy always finds the chance to sneak out of the house. It was then when he got acquainted and started hanging out with the older kids around his neighborhood. These are the friends that very much influenced and helped mold him into a teenage delinquent.
“I was encouraged by them to join their gang, to skip school and hang out with them. And it was then when I learn how to shoplift, cutting chain off bicycles to steal, extorting money from other kids and getting into fight for the most minor reason, just for the sake of getting into trouble and seeking thrill out of it.”, Kong explained how he was a wayward boy that followed whatever his peers instigated. “And it felt really good to be part of the gang and ‘cool’ to be doing things other normal ‘good’ kids didn't dare to do.”
It was then when young Kong’s misbehaviors and actions, prove that it can have direct consequence on his family, and the first to experience it was none other than his younger brother. Both brothers were studying in the same neighborhood secondary school. Kong’s truancy and bad records kept piling up and finally one day, he even threatened to hurt the school’s principal while being called to discipline.