all right seems like everybody is here seems like everybody's here so go ahead uh look at your neighbor look at your neighbor tell the Oh yeah you already clapped it up i like it i like it all right all right all right bring it up bring it back bring it back bring
it back dang oh that's the energy I'm talking about that is the energy that I need so yo before we get into today's conversation because that's pretty much what it is uh is it okay if we play a game is that okay with you guys if we
play a game all right cool cool cool that's the energy that I need all right so let me explain the game to you guys so y'all know what's going on so the game is really really simple really really simple
basically my hands are going to start right about here all right and when they cross when they get right about here you clap so when they cross you clap when they cross you clap when they cross you what
oo all right cool all right all right all right all right all right oh now they they they haven't crossed yet they haven't crossed yet all right cool i like the eagerness i appreciate the eagerness so we're going to try it out and when they don't cross you don't clap and it's
just one singular clap it's not like a round of applause it's just one singular clap so when they don't cross you don't clap and when they cross you clap so let's see how well high schoolers pay attention right this is really good this
is really good let's see how Somebody already clapping they're already feeling in the spirit in their heart i love it all right let's see bring it back bring it back they haven't even crossed yet y'all just excited to be out here i like it here we go let's see how well y'all do pretty simple game let's see how well y'all do ready here
we go okay all right here we go catch it again catch it again here we go ed nice oo all right let's see again let's see again only when they cl this let's go
this side let's go this side ready ready here we go let's see how well y'all do here we go and try again try again try again try it again and nice here we go got him got him got him got him all
right just this side just Just this middle column this is middle row just this middle row let's see let's see i feel like if if if I had if I had to to see who was going to be the best ones in here I think I I
think the middle section is going to hold it down man i think I I think I think the middle section got it let's see let's see it though let's see it though let's see though let's see let's see just the middle section just the middle section all right y'all got it yo you ready you locked in here we go ready
all right all right try again try again try again try again try again try again here we go and tweaking all right here we go nice got him got him got him right right a little shaky a little shaky a little shaky all right just this
side just this side just this side just this side here we go here we go let's see how well this side does here we go and yeah that's that is fast all right get it again get it again get it again here
we go and nice here we go nice got him got him all right just this side one more time just this side just this side just this side just this side ready ready this is They about to better do really well here we go let's see and
Nice nice actually that's not bad actually this side kind of held it down it's between this side and this side right here i got to I got to I got to get a temperature check y'all kind of fell off y'all y'all
kind of y'all kind of let me down middle section all right for the championship round we got left side versus right side here we go here we go oh they locked in all right here we go here we go
and not bad not bad not bad all right here we go let's see and nice nice okay that's not bad that's not bad that's not bad all right left side that was good all right right side let's see let's see
right side y'all got it y'all ready here we go here we go oh that was good that was really good man I think I think I got to do one more all together last one all together last one
all together here we go last one all together here we go nice oh thank you thank you thank you so much i appreciate it uh so that's my time i appreciate you got No I'm just kidding i'm just kidding no but honestly
honestly honestly I um bring it back bring it back man i get to travel a lot and uh do this work and all the time that I've done this work it's always the high schools that are
like "Man I'm too cool to play a game what you talking about Z i don't play games i stand on business." But when I came over here when I came over here to hang out with y'all y'all already came in with that energy and man that that was a lot of fun but I have to I have to crown a winner i can't I can't just
leave y'all and not crown a winner so it was between left side and right side and I'mma go ahead and give it to the right side man they had a down over here they did their thing they did their thing on that side respect all right bring it back bring it
back bring it back so they're already they're already starting to chant over here i love it so I appreciate y'all participating in that game with me y'all don't even know who I am you're like "All right this dude with the Boston hat wants to play a game right cool my guest will play y'all
don't even know my name y'all don't even know a little bit about me but I want to introduce myself a little bit further so y'all know who you're rocking with for the next uh next like 35ish minutes but before I do so before I do so hold up
hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up yo I appreciate the energy but if we can just harness that energy for like 35 minutes I promise you we're going to have a good time with one another but the side conversations bro some of y'all don't know how to whisper some of y'all are going through puberty or have gone
through puberty so your whispers don't sound like whispers y'all sound like this right that's kind of what y'all sound like and when you do stuff when when you when you when you sound like some of y'all have uh I'm not I'm not going to name any names but some of
y'all have some musty breath and when you're hot and whispering like the the smell kind of trickles down over here so just to avoid the hot breath from coming up to the front of the stage just keep side conversations down to a minimum today
and and just be respectful to one another and most importantly man be respectful to the person up here in the front uh I get it you guys are enjoying it you guys are having fun you guys are out of class and this is amazing uh and I love the energy again but remember there's a time and place right there's a time and place for that so if we can
just abide those two guidelines we'll be have we'll be able to have a great presentation for you guys and can I just get a thumbs up that we're okay with those two guidelines that's all I got for y'all today perfect oh yeah y'all are locked in i love it so a little bit about myself before I get
into today's content matter my name is Zion Z Given i go by Z out here in the community so y'all can call me Z so what's my name z yep last in the alphabet but number one in your heart oh that's a bar oh that's a bar my my my homie came up with that back in the day
and I I kind of stole it from him but I'm originally from I'm originally from a small town a smalish town uh called Tucson Arizona born and raised i'm a huge huge UFA Wildcat fan if anybody here plays attention to college sports at all you know UFA is always known for
their basketball program and I'm a huge basketball fan that's my favorite sport to play and to watch uh I thought when I was in like high school around your age man I thought I was going to go to the NBA i thought I was going to go to the D1 uh program but then I got to get I had to get realistic with myself my
junior year in high school I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like "Uh yo Z man you're like 5'9 510 on a good day if I'm wearing my Air Force Ones but you ain't jumping out the gym you ain't shooting lights out uh I think we should
just focus on our academics." So that's kind of what I actually did i pivoted from like playing the sport that I loved forever pivoting into just foc focusing my junior year and senior year on my academics went on to went on to college with the scholarship and all that good stuff whole another conversation for
another time but a little bit more about me growing up in Tucson Arizona you get a nice range of music how many of y'all love music in here how many of y'all love listening to music making music nice good good hands down hands down hands down so
So growing up in Tucson like I said you get a nice little range of music and I don't know about y'all but I just want to get a temperature check because out in the west side in the southwest side of town country is kind of a a popular genre how many of y'all in here
willingly listen to country music how many of y'all in here willingly listen to country music all right that's not bad all right cool cool cool hands down hands down hands down it's not bad yeah that's a little bit more than I thought there would be cuz uh when I was your age in high school and somebody was playing that country stuff I was like
"Turn this Boohoo stuff off why this grown man crying on the microphone?" Like man what are you talking about but as you get older and uh in high school actually I went through my first like tough breakup and I I I was bumping Luke Combmes and I was like "What how Luke
Combmes know about what I'm going through right now?" Like all the words he's saying like that that be hidden so I became a fan of country music due through Luke Combmes but also in uh in Tucson Arizona and Arizona in general uh Hispanic culture is rampant it's love
it's lovely it's an awesome culture so you're able to get a little bit of kumias coridos all those type of uh that that type of genre and I I love that that was my favorite genre to grow up uh listening to my mom used to play that religiously back in the day
and another genre that was really pop and a genre that's really near and dear to my heart uh and I tell this to everybody that I get to present to is hip-hop is what made me what raised me man I grew up on a lot of Yeah you clap it up for hip-hop i like that hip-hop is uh was one of those genres that really
just spoke to me and and kind of like helped me identify my truth and what I felt like was going on and whatnot but my favorite my fa my actually my dad put me on to hip-hop back in the day and I remember in preschool my dad used to bump 50 Cent in the car religiously 50
Cent was big in my household huge and I remember my dad had this like 1998 Corolla and he had two subs in the back he had a two10s in the back of his Camry youngest dad or Corolla youngest dad and I remember pulling up to
preschool and my dad would be I don't know if y'all are familiar with 50 Cent but he has this song called Mini Men and uh yeah there you go he knows it so I would my dad would be bumping this into preschool in the parking lot and I
would be hopping out like at three four years old hopping out singing the song word for word out of my little with my little backpack on talking about many men wish death upon me and I'm like bro I had I had no ops at three years old or
four years old like what was I what was I singing that song for i digress i digress that's just a fun story but my favorite uh my favorite hip-hop artist of all time he goes by the name of JCole i'm a huge JCole fan artist that I love and near and dear to my heart um just
some of his music really resonated with me and I bet And I bet if I were to ask you all who your favorite artist was and why you would be able to tell me and tell me why they resonate with you and I think that's pretty dope and I think I
think music has an awesome way of connecting people together but I'm not here to talk to you about music uh I'm not a rapper i'm not a singer i'm not a dancer i mean I can get down on the dance floor don't get it twisted but what I am here to do is I I'm here
to and and before we get into the content matter before I tell you what we're talking about today uh you got to promise me that y'all that that that y'all going to keep your cool and your composure all right cuz when I say the topic some of y'all are going to roll your eyes some of you are going to be like "Ah bro I already know all this
stuff." And whatever whatever but you got to promise me you're going to hold it down you're not going to do that all right that cool with y'all thumbs up if that's cool with y'all all right cool so today we're talking about a topic that is really important to talk about and I don't think we talk about it often
and we don't talk about it in the manner that we're about to talk about it today and you're all like what's the it that we're talking about well today what we're going to be talking about is we're going to be talking about substance use wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute don't get up don't move oh he's
he's like I'm out i am out i don't need to hear this i'm I'm peace no I'm just kidding but listen this is going to be a lot different than a lot of the other presentations you maybe have had on the topic of substance misuse right i'm not
here and I here I got I got some promises to make for y'all with the next 30 minutes that I'm with you my first promise is that this topic we're talking about is going to be a conversation it's not going to be a lecture i think y'all have been lectured enough and that you
all do get lectured enough by your parents or guardians or maybe by teachers and faculty members and stuff like that which is great because sometimes you need to hear it from a lecturer but sometimes the best way to learn is through conversation and that's what I want to provide here today is I
want to have a conversation and another promise that I'll make to you is that I'll make sure that this this this presentation as you can already tell that it isn't scare tacticy i'm not going to scare you out of using uh substances that's not my
job it's really boring and really whack if I do that so I'm not here to do that but I'll also share this with you i'll make sure that it's fun that it's engaging i'll share I'll share some of my stories with you from my high school experience and maybe just share some some vulnerabilities with y'all and with
that the last thing I'll say is this i'm not here how to tell you how to live your life i'm going say that again i'm not here how to tell you how to live your life first of all because Can I be honest with y'all is that cool with y'all can I be honest yeah okay first of all telling
people how to live your life is one whack it's pretty whack and second of all can I be Can I be super honest with y'all super honest can I have permission can I be super honest with y'all here's the here's the honesty
man i Man I don't get paid enough to tell you how to live your life all right that that's just facts that's just facts right like I I don't I don't get paid enough to tell you how to live your life all right so so that's what I'm not here to
do even though I'm not here to do that those things here's what I am here to do here's why your school brought us out 518 out is because what we want to do and what I want to do is just supply you
with the education and the information that's all I'm here to do i'm just here to supply you with the education and information so that when you go back out to your communities for seniors when you go back when you go out to college campuses or you go back go out to the military or you go out to the workforce
that you're able to make an informed decision for yourself because one of my favorite things to tell young people is that you can't unknow something that you already know because if you're unknowing something that you already know you're making the conscious decision to go
against yourself oh that's a bar dude somebody write that down somebody got that get get your pen and paper out i'm going to say it again go get your pen and paper got it all right cool i see you taking notes so you can't unknow what you already know because you'll be making
the conscious decisions to go against yourself and oh somebody like "Oh I'm preaching up here dude." Oh I'm preaching all right here we go so that's all I'm here to do and when we talk about this today what I really want to
know from you guys is I want to know what are some things you want out of life what are some things you want out of life all right money what else miami okay a Miami penthouse a little condo action all right cool what else what
else y'all want a job somebody said "What else one more one more one more." Lamborghini lamborghini all right bring it back bring it back lamborghini money box all right bring it back bring it back
so I'mma put some things up here on the screen for y'all i'mma put some things up here on the screen for y'all and we're going to go through this list this list that we came up with that a lot of young people said they wanted out of life and if this is something that you
want out of life I just want you to do one singular clap all right as we go through so the first one is how many y'all want to go to college how many of youall want to take care of your family how many of y'all want to make lots of money how many of y'all want to help
people how many of y'all want to travel the world become a better person have a career you love play sports make an impact create art and music have great memories how many of y'all trying to
find your little boo thing out here all right all right bring it bring it back bring it back that's so good that's so good every time I do this presentation Every time I do this presentation Bring it back bring it back
bring it back you guys are good bring it back so every time I do this presentation you fall into one or two categories either you a want to make a lot of money or b you out here trying to find love like some of y'all are really
out here trying to find love so that I I respect that i respect that so high school can I can I keep it real with y'all hold on bring it back high school can I keep it real with y'all i'm going to tell you a secret that not
a lot of people get to tell you i'm going to tell you a secret that not a lot of people get to tell you and maybe they have told you but maybe you didn't believe them because they're like maybe your parent or a guardian and of course they're supposed to say those things but here's the
thing do you think everybody at least everybody in the world at least wants one of these things do you think can we agree on that yeah 100% 100% do you think
everybody gets to have these things right you're 100% correct 100% correct but here's the secret here's here's what we don't tell you and as adults in the room we we tried to tell you but maybe it just doesn't hit maybe it just lands
differently but here's the thing you guys can all have all of these things and a matter of fact I take it a step further these things are already yours they're waiting for you yo these things
are waiting for you and it sounds corny and it sounds cheesy don't get it twisted i understand but these things are waiting for you the only thing that's between you and these things that you want is the decisions
that you make hold on bring it back bring it back the difference is or the only thing that's holding you back from these things that you want are the decisions that you make do they align with your goals these goals that you
want and the answer is no then maybe you got to re-evaluate because it's funny that I'll go into these high schools and I'll have conversations with y'all one-on-one and we'll talk and I'll be like "Yo so what's what's one thing you want out of life?" And they'll be like "Well I want to take care of my family." I said "All right cool you want to take care of your family that's awesome what
are some of the things that you're doing now to prepare yourself to take care of your family what does what does that look like and y'all always hit me with the head down and you're you have some some of y'all have your hoodies on and you're like "Well honestly Z man uh I don't think I'm doing anything right now
to prepare to take care of my family i'm not doing that well in class i'm making dumb decisions out of my community i'm not doing the things that align with these goals that I want." And matter of fact I might be
putting my goal at jeopardy and when somebody shares that with me these are real stories this is real things that I've have conversations with young people about is that we say we want these things but yet our decisions that we make don't align with
what we want so I'll tell you this life is not up to chance but life is about the choices that we get to make because every day you have a choice to make whether you're going to try to obtain this goal that
you have that's already yours or are you going to divert and go through and go to another path or go through another path but I challenge you today that if you want these things already yours just make the healthy decision that aligns with this goal all right we're going to keep it pushing everybody say shortcuts
everybody say shortcuts shortcuts i agree that shortcuts are a great tool in some regard shortcuts are a great tool i believe in the old adage and verbiage of work smarter not harder
that's my that's my vibe i like that but in this example today when we talk about shortcuts shortcuts are going to be unhealthy today all right when we talk about shortcuts they're kind of it's an unhealthy thing today and everybody say skill sets skill sets skill sets skill
sets so skill sets are dope skill sets are things that you're able to grow upon you're supposed you're able to learn more from these skill sets that you develop and when we talk about
shortcuts versus skill sets skill sets are an amazing tool skill sets are something that people can't take away from you you can't take away somebody's skill set i'm going to give you an example right let's pretend we're walking down the street today and
Mr beast is on the same sidewalk we're on all right Mr beast all right Jimmy so Jimmy is on the same sidewalk we're on and Jimmy's like "Yo yo yo hold on hold on wait a minute yo I got two options for
you." Bring it back i got two options for you and he takes out this Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart already pre-downloaded on it and he says "Here this is yours for free
or he holds up keys to your dream car that you've been wanting for a couple years." And he said "Or you can have this car that's already paid off that has free gas for about a year and it's yours." All right so in your mind how
many of y'all are taking that Nintendo Switch how many of y'all taking that Nintendo Switch no no no gamers in here nobody usually just one person that'll say "Okay Nintendo Switch i like it." Okay respect all right how many of y'all are taking the keys to the brand new
whip how many of y'all getting a new car all right all right a lot of y'all cool this will make sense this will make sense here in a little bit so for those that may be selected Nintendo Switch awesome if y'all never
played Mario Kart before please do it's an amazing game a lot of fun to play with friends and against friends and Mario Kart we can agree that it's kind of fun when you're playing in friends and you're competing and you're doing well or maybe you're playing against yourself and you're trying to
beat your personal records and all those things but when you play Mario Kart by yourself for a couple days it kind of gets repetitive and boring there's really no storyline behind it there's really no uh character development so to
speak so it's kind of boring it gets boring when you're not playing with other people or multiplayer it gets pretty whack so I want to equate this idea of Mario Kart to what substances are
like because substances people say "Well man I use because I'm going through something and maybe I'm going through a difficult time and all these things." things they'll come up with some some reasons why they use and they'll say "Well when when I when I get high when I
get drunk it makes me feel good for a little bit." Kind of like the Mario Kart that we're talking about right mario Kart is fun until it isn't anymore kind of like substances kind of like drugs and alcohol substances people will say are
fun until it isn't anymore bring it back bring it back so when we talk about the shortcut drugs and alcohol are a shortcut for people that may be struggling that probably don't have a positive coping skill in their life it's
a shortcut it's a short-term relief it's a short-term relief but it's not solving the actual problem that you might be going through or the feeling that you might be feeling doesn't do any of that but luckily for us a lot of you selected
the car the brand new whip which is great and when we talk about driving some of y'all in here can drive already some of you are 16 have a license and permit y'all can drive and the cool thing about driving is driving is a skill set people can't
take that skill set away from you that's something that you have for life once you know something you know it for a long time and when you're driving you get a lot of freedom you're able to go places some of y'all can take a trip down to
Connecticut some of y'all can go to New York some of y'all go to Jersey right y'all can travel because you have the skill set and you have legalities some of y'all are 16 and can drive and that's the beautiful thing
about skill sets the skill sets can take us places skill sets can take us places whether it's sports whether it's band whether it's music whether it's uh uh academics these are skill sets that actually take you places unlike Mario
Kart where it doesn't take you anywhere there's nowhere where that takes you it may look like you're going somewhere but you ain't going nowhere and when we talk about these topics and I want you to say skill sets skill sets skill sets skill sets skill
sets i want you to leave here today And I'm not I'm not done i got I got a little bit more time with y'all i want you to leave here today thinking about what skill sets do you want to maybe enhance what skill sets do you want to develop so you don't fall victim to
these shortcuts because these shortcuts seem tempting these shortcuts will look pleasing to you but once you develop a great idea of what skill set you want to develop or new skill sets you want to develop those shortcuts look less
tempting and when we talk about substances usually you'll have somebody that comes in here that talks with you guys about how they had they went through their own journey of recovery how they maybe started in high school and then somewhere down the line they
went they went through addiction and then somewhere down the line they went through recovery and now they're in long-term recovery and that's kind of the story that you guys get a lot of times which is great i think those stories are needed i think those lived experiences are valuable they're great
but we don't spend a lot of time talking about what's on the other end of that coin what about the kid that's in high school that never used substances in high school or in college what about that are do those people even exist and you'd be right you'd be right
and you don't sometimes and I I love that you guys are being courageous enough to say "Yeah I'm one of those i don't I don't I don't use substances i'm in high school and I don't do that that's awesome." Be proud of that but sometimes those people's stories get
overlooked sometimes those people's stories get overlooked because they aren't always in trouble or they always they're not always the most popular students that was me that's my story now
I'll tell you a quick story about my life in middle school and high school and even a little bit in college about how I decided to stay substancefree because it's hard especially growing up on the south side of Tucson where some of y'all have never been to Arizona or Tucson the southside uh in Tucson in
general that's where the cartel hits first so you come through Ngalas and you come through Sonora in Mexico and you come through Tucson that's how cartels get their drugs out we're the first city in America that they hit one of the first main cities that they hit so the
cartel was rampant in my community a lot of young students were using substances at a young age a lot of them claimed to be gang involved but most of them were had family members that were part of the cartel right and when you grow up in this this
environment it's easy just to say well you know what this is my community this is the life so why not just do what everybody else is doing it's easy to do that had a lot of friends that have done that and made that decision in the past but luckily for me I was able to make an
informed decision because I saw how drugs and alcohol affected my friends that was something that I didn't want to have happen to me so in middle school my friends were uh I had two friends two close friends i was going to a different
high school than them so our summer our summer um summer into freshman year of high school my friends were all like kind of game planning this idea that they're going to hang out with the upper classmen so that they can get some some notoriety some some clout and so that they can be in the know about what's happening that was kind of their game
plan they weren't like the the super popular kids either my friends they weren't really super popular but they were wellknown so they started hanging out with these upper classmen in high school our summer and our our summer heading into our freshman year and for me that that wasn't my my
crowd that wasn't who I was really wanted to kick it with because I had this goal of making the varsity team as a freshman that was my goal i wanted to do that i wanted to make sure I performed well practiced hard all those things so I didn't do that a lot of that in the summer so freshman year rolls
around and my friends are now not the friends that I grew up with these are friends that are partying every weekend getting high every night talking to all the upper classmen trying to seem cool for these this this this group of people
and for me man I was locked in i was trying to again I was trying to make the varsity team as a freshman that was my goal and I knew that drugs and alcohol didn't serve me in the way that would be productive for my my development it it wasn't enhancing my skill set so there
was one night when I'm at home Friday night and I haven't talked to my two friends in a while we would talk occasionally you know dap up in the hallways and that would be it friday night my friends calls me and I haven't seen them in a minute haven't talked to them like this on a weekend in
a while so I'm sitting in bed and I don't know about y'all but on Friday nights you know when you're when you're not doing nothing you get in your PJs and you're getting all snuggly in your room you got the Netflix on and at this time Stranger Things was out so I'm about to watch Stranger Things and I'm
comfy yo like I'm comfy and I hear my phone ringing i hear my phone ringing i look and I see it's my friend i'm like "Oh that's weird they're calling me this uh this late at night let me let me answer this so I answered the
phone my friend on the other line "Yo Z what's up?" I was like "Oh what up yo how you doing?" He's like "Man I'm doing good yo there's a party about a block away from your crib me and the homie are going to pull up and pick you up so we can go to this party together." I was
like "This party what are you talking about this party i don't even know about this party that's happening." He's like "Z no like we'll scoop you and and we go all all three of us can roll together like we did back in the day." And at first my first brain my brain was like "Oh this could be dope i could key with
my friends that I haven't kicked it with in a minute i get to maybe hang out with some new folks that I haven't met before." But in the back of my mind it was like "Yo how is this going to help me in my goal of making the varsity team as a freshman?" So I'm talking to him and
it's kind of silent on the phone and my friend's like "Yo Z don't be whack bro like let's just go and let's have fun." I'm like "All right i don't know man i don't know i don't know i don't think I You know what i think I'm good." And he goes "But Z yo check it out man remember
that one girl you said you've been feeling for a minute?" And I was like "Yeah what what about her?" She was they were like "Well she going to be at this party." So quickly my brain goes
"Oo this might be my chance to you know holl at her real quick and maybe leave the party with a with somebody I'm talking to i don't know this might be cool i can show her that I'm a good time that I'm fun that I'm funny all these things." And then quickly my brain
reverted back to how does this align with your goal how does this align with your goal and before I could think about it the words that came out of my mouth were "Yo I think I'm good." And instead of being like a good friend and being supportive
of my decision the homie answers answers me back and goes "Bro you're so whack like how you 14 acting like you 30 don't want to go out with us this is what we're supposed to do in high school we're supposed to be living it up and whatever." And going on this long tangent and he's like "Hey whenever you
decide to be cool again Z like hit me up and to hear that from one of your closest friends that you grew up with kind of hurts right it's kind of like a blow to your ego you're like "Bro I thought I was cool i didn't know I had to smoke or drink or party to be cool."
And if it made me feel some type of way so I'm on Snapchat the rest of the night trying to see like what the vibes are like does this party did this party even happen so I open Snapchat look at their story and the first thing I see is cop lights
they pulled up and the party was already shut down and the girl that they said were going to be there I looked on her Snapchat guess where she was at at home watching Netflix and watching Stranger Things like bro what like so the reason why I share that
story with you the reason why I share that story with you is because we make up all these stories in our minds we get this FOMO this fear of missing out that we're going to miss out on something crazy that's going to happen at this party
that when we come to school on Monday that that's going to be the talk of the school and everybody's going to be talking about what happened that night but in reality usually nothing happens you don't miss out on anything for making a healthy decision and that's
what I really want y'all to understand is that and I'll share I'll share another story with you here in in a little bit but there's nothing wrong with going out and having a good time you can do that bless you by the way there's nothing wrong with going out and having a good
time but you got to make healthy decisions that align with the goals and the things that you want out of life so we'll keep it pushing here's some reasons why people smoke and drink this is what people say they say to fit in to relieve stress it's expected you don't have to
clap um to loosen up to feel more confident to forget for a while to party to be social to feel like an adult which one do you hear the most of though if you had to assume to fit in probably is a big one what
else stress yep yep yep yep yep stress right to party to feel like an adult and I think for those that said stress hold it down hold it down you guys are good for those that said stress
what are some poss when I ask this question what are some possible stressors that you may be going through as a high school student what are some possible stressors grades school go ahead your future 100%
what else oh to study like research okay so maybe like to experiment yeah okay to experiment social life right what do you say when you say social life what does that mean okay like how people see us maybe
cool so the reason why I asked that the reason why I asked that is because sometimes you don't get asked like Or matter of fact let me take a step back sometimes most of y'all will tell a parent or guardian that you're
stressed and then when you say "Yo mom dad you know parent guardian y'all I'm kind of feeling stressed." Some of them maybe your parents or guardians like their head to the side look at you and they hit you with the you're
stressed how are you possibly stressed how are you stressed your 14 15 16 17 year olds what are you stressed about and they hit you with this long list of reasons why they're stressed they'll be like "Well you don't got to pay the bills you don't got to put food on the table you don't got to take care
of three other kids you don't got to go to work and work 12 hours what are you stressed about?" And when they hit you with that when they hit you with that and you can agree or disagree but it feels like they invalidate our
experience and I want to let you know that every stressor you have felt and will feel as you mature and grow up and in high school especially is valid these are things to be reasonably stressed out about but when we are talking about
using substances to cope with this stress man there's a lot more harm than good in the future and a lot of people like to talk about marijuana and how marijuana is this great thing and it's it's from the earth and it's natural and it doesn't do anything for you if God
put it here then why we ain't smoking it that's that's what I hear a lot right and some of y'all might agree some of y'all might disagree but here's just the facts right here's just the facts the most the second most treated
substances in rehab center is marijuana here's another fact marijuana people say is not addictive it's actually the most addictive uh most addictive substance that we're seeing right now amongst young
people right next to nicotine is up there with nicotine for sure vapes so these two things go hand in hand and people are like "Well Z man it just makes me feel good for a minute." But it doesn't solve the problem that you're actually going through you just get high and you feel good for
about an hour hour and a half or whatever and you never do anything to solve the problem you do you never do anything to solve the problem so when we talk about stress yes I want to validate your stress but
running to a substance running to a substance to cope is the last thing I want you to think about and let's keep it real since I can be real with you guys here in T in Tucson and Phoenix especially now because I live in Phoenix is
um the third leading cause of death for people or well I won't even say third leading cause is actually just a cause of death and that has been rampant has been overdoses among young people fenol is real and fenol is real scary and I don't scare I don't I don't share this to
scare you out of using substances but here's the reality you never know what you're actually getting some of you are like "But bro I got this one dude on Snapchat and I hit him up and he just delivers whatever and it's pure and it's good." But you don't actually know what you're getting you don't know where he
got that from you don't know where that other person got it from you're just assuming and some of y'all would be like "But Z when you look at a cart and you look at it like this and you that look good there's no fat on there." But the reality is here's the reality
the reality is there's no way of telling there's no way of telling and the reason why I took a step back and say said why is not a leading cause of death is because so many young people so many young people are trying for the first time maybe a wax pen maybe
a vape they're trying it for the first time and the first time they ever try something is the last time they try anything in their life the last thing they ever do in their life and I know most of y'all never have thoughts of like oh yeah you know the last thing I want to do on earth is get
high and that'll be it that's not what you want to do a lot of y'all said you want to take care of your family a lot of y'all said you want to go to college but I'll tell you this right now drugs substances they don't care about your future they don't care that you want to be a D1 athlete they don't care that you
want to be a mom or a dad or have a family they don't care that you want to have and find your your next booang they don't care drugs don't care about your life they don't they
don't so don't run to this these things thinking that it's going to help you instead man I would rather you talk to somebody that in your life or in your corner to get the help that you deserve and need there's nothing wrong with reaching out for help so these are the reasons why people say they use drugs or
alcohol so people who drink or smoke are at the age of 15 are five times more likely to struggle with addiction nine out of 10 adults addicted started to use before the age of 18 what this tells me and what this should let you know is that you're like
"Well dude it's high school i'm I'm supposed to be doing this it's it's whatever man we're good i'm living my life i'm a high schooler." But some of y'all got to understand that the decisions you make now in high school can have long-term
effects way down the road some of y'all in this room right now are making that unhealthy decision at age 14 15 and 16 and 17 years old and that's just real that's just facts right and I'm not here to call you out i'm not here to make you feel bad
about it but what I am here to do man is just give you the education so that you know that you can end up being this nine out of 10 and I don't want you to be that don't want you to be the nine out of 10 adults
that use that that have an addiction at 21 years old i I promise you that's not a life you want to live and it's funny because you'll go through high school and you'll you'll set all these kind of boundaries for yourself when it comes to substances
somebody that uses will say "Okay well I'll only smoke on Friday through Sunday." All right that's it some of y'all set up boundaries like "Okay I'm only going to drink on Saturdays though and I'm only going to do three drinks that's it." And then some of y'all set boundaries of like "Okay well when I go
out I party I'm not going to take no pills right that's not going to be my thing." And is sure and when we think about harm reduction sure that's a great way to have boundaries and a great way to set boundaries but what happens is when people when I talk to people who are in recovery they say they had all
these boundaries set for themselves they say that "Man I'm not going to end up like that tweaker over there i'm not going to end up like them i'm not going to be addicting for money that's not that's not my that's not my future." And then instead they end up becoming that person
that very person they said they wouldn't be so the decisions you make now in high school have huge implication on your future i just want you to keep that in mind as you're growing up and making decisions but at the end of the day like I said I'm just here to give you the education so that you can make that informed decision for yourself so why
people choose not to use the first one man they probably lost someone due that addiction maybe they uh they like they don't like the way it smells maybe because of their religion or faith maybe because they know their family wouldn't approve of it maybe because they play sports but what I say is any reason not
to use is a great reason not to use it's great it's great and some of y'all will go out to kickbacks or to functions or to parties and I'll give you a key word here today and it sucks because sometimes not everybody's hearing this today but the key phrase that I used in
high school was I'm not doing that tonight i'm not drinking tonight i'm not smoking tonight and little do people know when you go out to these functions because little sometimes when you like mix crowds together they don't know who you are i don't know uh like your
reputation so they'll just assume that oh he say he's not doing that tonight so he might be doing that every other night but when you use that keyword tonight it gives you an out and that's what I did in high school i go out to these parties i used man I
used to be a a home function turnup man i used to be dancing on the dance floor with the homies and getting turn on the dance floor that was my thing and people would always ask me to hit this vape hit take a shot do these things and I would always tell them "No man i'm good tonight." And people would never leave
me alone after I said that people would leave me alone after I said that so if you need it out that key word is "I'm not doing that tonight." And you might develop a reputation of somebody that doesn't use which is great you want to have that reputation as you're growing up all right so as you wrap up we'll go
through these real quick real real quick don't worry about that that's for middle school middle school likes to play that game so when we talk about what we do at Vive8 man one of the most fun things that we get to do is we get to travel the world and we get to
have help youth and your peers throw drug-free events we've thrown drug-free house parties we've thrown uh the one of my favorite events that we talk about you see those uh that that hill in the back with the greenery in the screen uh on on the field this was uh in Wisconsin
and we got a group of youth together and they were like "Hey what we want to do Z is we want to go see that big hill outside?" I was like "Yeah." They said "Can we put a slip and slide down it and just slide down it 100,000 times until we get bored and that would be our drug-free event?" And I was like "Sure
if you think that's what your friends are going to like yeah let's do it." So they did it and it was a huge success another school uh rented out a trampoline park and they bounced for about two hours so why I share this with you is because it's possible to have fun
without using drugs or alcohol and the only thing that's limiting yourself the only thing that's limiting yourself is your creativity and sometimes you just need a permission from a trusted adult to be like "Yeah all right let's find the funding and let's do this together." So that's what we help peers do and help you guys do so
if you ever want to get in contact with us you have question comments or concerns you can always reach out to us on Instagram but with that being said I appreciate y'all for being a good crew and I'll talk to y'all real soon man