Introduction
My personal experience back in college as a young adult can be described as wild and care free. I was the captain of my college football team and this made me very popular. I was expected to constantly remain physically fit in order to lead my team to victory and simultaneously achieve good academic performance. However, there was nobody to stop my newly-acquired status as a free individual. I recall the frequent drinking sprees with my friends. These were of course accompanied by cases of rowdiness and restlessness. In other words, I had a high affinity to disrupt the peace. However, I did not know that the newly-discovered love for the bottle would cause me so much concern now. A check at my personal health vividly shows that I need to get worried about the future of my family.
Regular exercising
My college years as a football player have made me continue to exercise on a regular basis. Although my job as a clerk in a government agency does not permit me to exercise as frequently as I would love to, I spare part of my mornings and evenings working out in my personal gym. During my time off from work, I encourage my wife and teenage children to join me for a jog around the local park. Although they do not like it most of the time, I always get a way of convincing them to tag along. I believe that regular exercising is good for the general health of my entire family.
Proper dieting
I learnt in college that regular exercising should be complemented with the proper diet. Being a sportsman in college, I had to watch my fitness levels and this meant eating healthy in addition to the regular exercising. It is pointless to hit the gym when we continue to gain the same weight we intend to shed off by eating improperly. As my football coach would literally say, “It is an exercise in futility.” This has helped me convince my wife on the importance eating the right types of food in the right amounts. This has made my family stay healthy.
Avoiding peer pressure
In college I experienced some of my close friends carry the burden of succumbing to peer pressure. Social vices such as pre-marital sex and drug abuse were the order of the day. Personally, I was also a victim. Coming from a religious background, I found myself succumbing to alcoholism in spite of the high moral standards that I had set for myself. The desire to amuse my ‘cool’ friends made me subject my body to alcohol consumption. Quitting alcohol has continued to be struggle for me. Recently, my doctor detected that I am suffering from liver cirrhosis and that I should reduce on my level of alcohol intake.
Conclusion
In summary, the experiences that I had in college have greatly impacted on my current lifestyle. From the frequent consumption of alcohol to the tiring hours at the gym as a football player, I believe that my heavy drinking of alcohol will continue to deteriorate my health unless I take charge of life. I will seek the services of a personal counselor and join a self-help peer group to help me reduce my alcohol addiction. This will not only be beneficial to my personal well being but most importantly to my family that has never stopped loving and caring for me.
