There are times in our lives, both personal and professional, when we are faced with situations where we have the choice of following or breaking the rules. This just recently happened to me during my drive from the state of North Carolina to Tennessee by road. As I was looking for a youth of Tennessee for my project ‘Voice of the Youth’ for YouTube, I approached two young women and explained to them what I was doing driving across each state. I told them I was interviewing youth, giving them a platform to express their novel ideas on solving for issues and problems.

One of them agreed to interview with me, but the only problem was that I had set my definition of youth between the ages of 15-35yrs of age, but this fine young woman was not in the category. So I casually asked her to express without the video and started listening to her answers. When I heard her story, my heart was sinking and I was getting inspired by this woman who was explaining me things while sipping on her coffee and eating her danish. In that moment, I was convinced that this interview will mean more to people than anything. Why? This woman is a recovering addict. She explained to me the acronym DOC. I bet most of us don’t know what it means. It stands for ‘Drug Of Choice’. And hers was Meth. She was open about it, and said, I can interview with you. That’s when I broke the rules of range of age I consider for youth the interviews. She interrupted me as I was talking to her and said, give me a few minutes to finish up with her coffee and danish. The two women and I came out of the store we were at, and then, she asked me to wait, yet again, only this time she was going to help the other woman cross the street. After which she came back, and then smiled and said, I am ready. Towards the end of the interview, I ask the youth for their phone number so I can share the link of the video, for which she said, ‘I don’t got no phone Miss’. My heart sank further. This woman inspired me with her courage to be in the recovery. Watch this video and see for yourself. I will never be able to see her again, but I am sure here to spread the word, that there is hope! We all need to start looking around and give people a voice. Watch her interview, as well as see the chart below, I pulled from researchgate.net.

This chart is taken from an article posted on researchgate.net.