How to turn things around with the sword?
 

Hello. Recently I've been caught for shoplifting. This has opened my eyes that I need to stop my alcohol, crime and drug usage. I've been thinking about turning back to religion but that doesn't seem right. So I thought about when I use to spar with my friend using bokens and how much I wanted to be a swordsmen. I think devoting my life to the sword would help me turn things around. So I'm wondering what kind of styles are out there and also which ones use two swords as I've always liked using two swords.

Is this a troll or not?

Do a google search for Kendo/Kenjutsu/Iaido

after you've read, come back here and we will help you find an instructor in your area.

Do a google search for narcotics anonymous, man! Sounds like your problems may be bigger. Whatever happens, good luck and God bless. Hope you turn it around.

Hold on now, let's not be stuck up here.

Hizeme how about you tell us how old you are and the general area where you live.

The chances of you "turning your life around" by "devoting your life to the sword" are pretty much zero. What you need is a good dojo where you can spend a lot of time sweating so you will be too tired to hang around with losers.

There is no magic pill that will turn your life around. You take one step then anothwer then another. Life is difficult and so is kendo.

Enlist. Embrace the freedom of a hierarchical command structure. Nothing here that equal parts of rum, sodomy and the lash won't cure. OK, maybe not that second bit...

You've used them before?

I'm 15 and right now I live about an hour away from San Jose in Santa Cruz. Although I might be moving to Palm Springs in Cali.

Yes, it was the only time I was able to beat my friend.

A cane is more effective.

work, study and self introspection and not hanging out with thieves and hoodlums should do the trick. Kendo teaches oneself discipline but you have to be able to apply it to your outside life as well. either way good luck and i hope you succeed in whatever you do in life whether you study kendo or not.

How much have you been drinking, what has your other drug habits been? These are import questions, if you have caught your self early then perhaps giving your self a purpose will help. If you have gone too far you will need the kind of help that cannot be offered here.

I'm 15. I drink when I can, although I was taking a small break because i had alcohol poising the other week. I smoked weed a good amount. I started DXM(an ingredient in cough syrup) on Saturday and I was arrested for shoplifting shortly before I was gonna take DXM again. I can tell you now I would've started taking DXM almost everyday if it wasn't for getting arrested. I'm in Boy Scouts now and my brother said that helped him not do drugs and drink but he still drank a lot. So I think between Boy Scouts and training in the way of the sword I can resist my old habits.

I think it is admirable that you are trying to turn your life around, but I believe you need professional help - not a bunch of strangers who hit each other for fun.

Fill your life with something positive to do and then swords maybe could turn your life around. Boredom is the problem (somewhat). Idle hands are the devils workshop. If you have something to do that you enjoy, then there sometimes isn't a need to do the drug/drinking thing. Don't expect it to magically fix your problems, but actually DOING something fun like kendo can show good results in replacing negative time with something positive. Turning to religion is fine and all that, but it doens't replace the lack of something better to do component, unless you plan on becoming a monk. Kendo isn't the magical cure to drinking and drugs... actually kendo people have some of the biggest beer guts I've seen, but if you are looking for something worth doing, you are starting in the right place. And being in CA, you should have plenty of places to train so fill your schedule with training and you won't have time to goof off.

Ah...Singapore.

Amazing, simply amazing! 15 years old? drugs, alcohol, shoft lifting, and you still not stay in the rehab? Amazing, simply amazing.

+1,000,000,000,000

Hizeme, are you Lindsay Lohan?

- -
No I'm not Lindsay Lohan.

work, study and self introspection and not hanging out with thieves and hoodlums should do the trick. Spoken like a true suburbanite Pug! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif
Amazing, simply amazing! 15 years old? drugs, alcohol, shoft lifting, and you still not stay in the rehab? Amazing, simply amazing Not really. This has been pretty common since the 80's. Usually rich suburbanites or poor inner city kids.

Scott,
The cane comment was outstanding! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.gif


Hizeme,
I agree with Scott in that you probably need more help than can be found on the internet, or in a dojo. Scouts and swords can give you something to focus on, but improvement has to come from within. Way back when I was a teenager, and doing pretty much the same thing you are now, a very, very old man told me something that changed my life. He said that if you look at your life and don't like something about it, change it. If you can't be bothered to change it, learn to like it. I was young and whiny then, so I told him that I couldn't change it; ... my parents blah, blah, the neighborhood blah, blah, money blah, blah, friends blah, blah ... When all my objections ran down, he looked me square in the eyes and said "You can change absolutely anything you want to about your life, anything at all. You just need to want to badly enough!"

So, if you don't like things about your life, change them. Research and figure out what help is available to you, and use it! Don't continue to think that something else is going to come and save you.

Good luck!

And if you are lucky you can break all ten commandments before you are 21 then spend the rest of your life looking for redemption.

Or doing life without parole.

But, isn't that what we all do?