Oral History-being 17

She is a seventeen year old girl-woman-who has chosen to remain nameless due to the publicity of this interview. She was born and raised in Evanston Illinois; has attended numerous schools, and is dealing with a range of issues both adolescent and mature.


~Tell me a little bit about your educational history?
I went to private school from kindergarten to eighth grade, where I was really sheltered. It was pretty much a small family and you were really comfortable around everyone, and everyone knew your business. Then I went to my public high school for a year, and I thought I would be scared...but I actually loved it. But then I got kicked out...and now I'm at an alternative school. I dunno...It's fun but kind of depressing and I'm not happy with the education I'm getting at all.

~Why did you get kicked out?
Ok...well, I didn't really get kicked out. I got placed into a different school because I was diagnosed with an eating disorder...and had been hospitalized for a couple weeks, and when I came back they called an IP meeting, which means individual education plan, and they decided it would be best for me if I was placed in a therapeutic day school.

~Is that the school you are currently attending?
No...after that I was at the therapeutic day school for a while, but they had a no drug policy and were drug testing everyone all the time, and I never passed because I was smoking to much pot. They told me I couldn't stay unless I stopped...and I didn't, I couldn't, so they placed me at the school I'm at now. Which is also a therapeutic school, but more of an alternative school.

~Do you feel that your use of marijuana is related to your eating disorder?
Ummm...I guess. Like I felt like....well, the eating disorder came fist...and I definitely used weed as a coping skill. But it's also effected me negatively because then I eat a lot and feel bad about it.

~How do you believe your experiences at different schools has changed you?
It makes me really aware, and I learn a lot about different kinds of people really well. I dunno, it's given me the opportunity to have a lot of different social interactions.

~What is the school you feel has impacted you the most and why?
Probably my middle school...Roycemore...because that's where I went from being a little girl to an adolescent.

~What is the hardest struggle you have dealt with or are dealing with? Would you say it's the eating disorder?
No. I would say it's the drug use because I'm seventeen and have been addicted to smoking pot for three years, and I have messed with way to many other things too. I don't know where I'm going with the constant weed use. My sobriety means a lot to me because deep down I know I'm happier sober...but its become such a big part of my life and surroundings that I don't feel like i=i can get away from it.

~How have your struggles impacted your life?
It's definitely been a rocky adolescence...all my problems have set my growing and maturing back. Positively? I feel like if I've already been through so much, how much worse can it get?

~What advice would you give to someone dealing with the same things as you?
Take it one day at a time.