I was freshly discharged from the Marine Corps and found myself working at a bowling alley back on Long Island, NY. I was selling weed as a side business, and just getting going with my newfound addiction to painkillers. Vicodin and Percocet were my new best friends, and I took them everywhere.

I went out for a smoke break one night during work and was greeted by a pretty young blonde, let’s call her “C”. She asked if I had an extra cigarette for her, and I gladly gave her one of my Newports. She lamented to me about having to be at the bowling alley for her grown friend’s lame birthday party. She asked what time I got off work, and if I wanted to hang out later; by this point I knew that we both shared an affinity for smoking pot and dabbling in drugs. I told her that I’d be off work by 1am, and she promised she’d be back.

At 1:15am I was getting into my car in the parking lot, the last one to leave the bowling alley, and I saw “C”, walking across the lot headed towards me. Had this girl really walked from wherever she was to come back and see me? She had.

She got into my car and asked what did I wanna do? I answered that we could go drive around or go back to my house. She clarified, and asked what drugs did I want to do? At that point she pulled out a bag of ecstasy pills and various opiates.

Within two weeks, “C” had introduced me to heroin. The following 6 years was a blur, and not the good kind.

It’s funny for me to think about now, if I never smoked cigarettes, would I have even had a conversation with “C”? Would I have found heroin another way? Would I have turned my life upside-down without her help?

Sin is progressive, and addiction even more so. We don’t realize how small things can escalate so quickly, and lead us to an unintended end.