My Life´s Wishlist - Drugs, Books, and Rock&Roll - Chapter 3

In the previous chapters, you could read how I got seduced by a 10-year-old Eve-like girl to smoke my first cigarette. And how I later on in life got seduced by another very young lady to smoke weed for the first time.

Now both experiences were childlike romantic in a way, nothing disturbing. If that sweet seduction would not have a lasting impact. But it did and just like Adam, I got kicked out of paradise.

Now there was also something with me making three wishes at the age of fourteen and how that messed up my life. Well just read this next chapter it will all become clear, or not.

To read chapter 2 first click here.

To start from the beginning click here.

It wasn´t so much the cigarettes, they never really did it for me....it was that damn herb. And I mean damn in the kindest possible way because there are away worse vices. But smoking weed every day at that age comes at a cost.

My after-school hours got spent more and more in coffeeshops, the Dutch kind. I spend all the money I made working little jobs and my allowance on smoking weed and playing pool, but it often wasn´t enough.

What´s a fourteen-year-old to do? Indeed, I started to borrow money left and right and tried to figure out ways to increase my income. Not paying the fees for the place I did Judo and Karate put a bit of money in my pocket, well until it was spent that same day on the green stuff.

At first, I tried to come up with the money, but at a certain time I was 3 months late and I had no way of paying that back. So I made up this story about how I wanted to quit because I did not enjoy it anymore... I got away with it.

My paper route was paid monthly and I figured out a way to withdraw the same amount twice. Computers those days were not so fast, hence if I would withdraw the money using ATM outside and then go inside and withdraw it again, I had twice the amount that was there in my bank account.

Now you see it coming right? All these tricks I came up with to get my hands on more cash caused me to build up more and more debt.

Oh man, I was not truly evil but I did just remember this one trick. In school we had this book called "Bos Atlas", and we never used it but it was part of our standard order.

Well, we found a bookstore that would buy it and did not ask for an ID. Once we figured out how that worked we sold our own first and stole some from the school second. I even remember a party where my friend and I slept over. It was at the house of a guy we barely knew and in the room where we slept there stood a "Bos Atlas". Stood because when we left that morning it had magically disappeared.

Beastie Boys - Rhymin' & Stealin'

You really get creative if you are that age and need money, and even though I never really stole anything big I did embezzle a lot of little bits over time.

Now at that time, I thought that the answer to all my problems would be working in a coffee shop making some money and getting some weed for free. Boy how I wished that I could work behind that counter, that would be the best job in the world. And so I made my first wish at fourteen which probably determined a lot in my life.

Of course, I knew that a fourteen-year-old can not get a job in a coffee shop. Still, I wished for it and 6 years later my wish came true.

So let's do a little fast-forward

Over the course of those six years, my debt did not decrease and a large part of my income still went to weed. Luckily I did well in school, got good grades (even though I was smoking at school), and started a new life in a new city studying Journalism.

I found out that students drink more than they smoke and as I could only spend my money once I did not get too entangled in student life at first. Then in my second year, I found this coffee shop where the first time I ordered I was served by the most beautiful wide-hipped Latina I had ever seen.

Shakira - Será Será

Yup, you got it, Dear Reader, Seduced and hooked yet again by another girl. I was such a simple boy I guess.

So I kept coming back, but she wasn´t behind the bar anymore. I did see her around there which was a good enough reason to make it my favorite place to hang out.
It did not take long for the owner to approach me. He asked me if I would like to work there and if I would know a girl that could do some shifts. Why he asked me, I still don´t know why. Maybe I dressed a little better than his average customer, or because I did not know the locals.

Whatever the reason, I was surprised that after all this time my wish came true and this opportunity just dropped in my lap.

Now did that solve all my problems?

Well, let´s say it did not make it worse and it did make it more pleasurable. I made a bit more money and well in all honesty as their accounting sucked I was able to pay myself a bit more by embezzling some weed.

With that job comes the unfortunate fact that you are invited to more parties and nights out with people you meet while working behind the bar. So my average cost of living as a working student increased at the same speed as my income increased. Hence at the end of the month, I had no cent to pay off my debt, but at least the debt remained the same.

Pharrell Williams - Cash In Cash Out

My weed addiction (if you can call smoking every day for 5 years an addiction) made my life expensive. Making a little extra money felt good as there was enough outstanding stuff to pay. It felt so good that I found another job during the summer holidays. It still didn´t allow me to make ends meet as I kept spending every single cent I earned.

After that summer I was so used to the extra income I went looking for another job. I found one and before I knew it they offered me a 20-hour contract. That meant that next to my study I was working 36 hours a week.

That worked wonderfully well for a year or two, but in my 4th year of Journalism, it became too much. I took some time off from my study and focussed on working and playing and I liked that way too much. As my shifts were always late I worked, spend the night in bars and clubs, came home early, and that was at least 5 days a week. There were months I did not spend one night at home.

That lifestyle is not without consequences and caused me to extend my study for another year, but in my last year, I was tired of it not being my cup of tea. I am a writer, and that is why I wanted to become a journalist. I hoped that they could teach me how to write.

They couldn´t I hardly got any constructive criticism during free write assignments. They always were impressed and raved about what I had written, but when it came to objective journalism I got bored.

I got two jobs and no longer had any interest to become a journalist.

Now looking back that decision was infused by me having to work to pay for my lifestyle. A lifestyle induced by smoking weed and building up debt from the age of fourteen. The wish of working in a coffee shop led to a life of partying and less studying, which led to more work which eventually led to me not becoming a journalist.

I am a Writer

But maybe that was meant to be, maybe I am not here to write an objective story. I love to take my reader on a trip, to make her/him swing left where they might have wanted to go right. I love being in the driver's seat and you "Dear Reader" are my guest. I don´t think I am made to show you what is real, but take it one step further, I like to show you what is beyond real;

I am A Writer and maybe my wish saved me from a life in which we would have never met.

So my first wish drove me in a certain direction, let´s see how that second wish messed up certain plans in Chapter 4 which is soon to be published.