What is your drug test?

Today I talked to a friend applying for internships for the 2020 summer. Let’s call him Donald. Donald and I met freshman year at orientation. We hit it off sharing interests like going to the gym, watching movies, playing video games, etc. Donald is a smart guy; he keeps his GPA above 3.5. We talk a lot about our hopes for our careers — what companies we’d want to work at, what positions we’d love to find ourselves in. Donald strives for success. So when he told me he started applying to places for next summer, I thought, “Great, he’s getting an early start.” There was one thing, however, I wondered about.

I asked Donald if any of the places he wants drug test. He said he didn’t know in almost a clueless and fearful fashion. I then said he could check reviews on sites like Glassdoor to see if anyone who used to work there knew. He told me he hadn’t really thought about it and just hoped they didn’t.

Donald is a chronic weed smoker. He smokes every day, several times. I always think it’s hilarious when he comes into class a little frazzled. It’s part of his personality. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s always been a stoner. And yet, he’s always managed to keep his academics in check. There’s just one problem — there’s no way to get around a drug test.

(Now, one could bring up the issue that maybe companies shouldn’t test for marijuana and maybe marijuana should be allowed and legalized and everything potheads love to present to the system. But that’s for a different article. This is about Donald.)

I asked him if he thought smoking was worth losing a dream job, and all he could say was how bad he would feel if that happened. He talked about how everything he worked so hard for would be for nothing. His applications, his GPA, his time, his parents’ money. He knew he needed to stop. He kept telling himself he needed to stop, but it was so tough for him to quit immediately. He’s been a smoker for so long. He didn’t know what he would do without it. If he didn’t stop, he could settle for a place that doesn’t test, but he also wants to work somewhere cool and prestigious. He was unsure of what to do.

Donald found himself between a rock and a hard place. Smoking was his favorite thing, over anything else in the world. He loved doing it, but getting a job meant he was going to have to lose it.

I told him the obvious but tough solution: just don’t smoke. But like all people with habits, Donald knew it was going to be really hard to change. At this point, I asked him what’s more important to him five years down the road. He said his career was more important, and I immediately said, “Cool, then I guess you have your solution.”

Donald found an answer. He knows it will be tough, but he knows what he wants most: to pass his drug test and work where he wants. And if that means he has to give up the thing he’s loved for all his teenage years, then so be it.

Is there something in your life you want? Is there something else keeping you from getting there? Look closely at the things you love now and look at what you want to be in the future. Do they match up? Weigh out what you have to lose now to get where you really want later, because the thing you need to lose just might be the thing you’ve loved most for the past five or ten years.

FINAL MESSAGE: Sometimes you have to give something you love up, to get somewhere you really want. Set your priorities, pull the plug, start fresh, and go.