Testing It Up

The tennis star whose recent revelation that he used crystal meth in 1997 (the year he dealt with having dropped out of the sport along with other personal problems) sent shockwaves through the sports world, is now making it very clear that that use didn’t extend to the court. In fact the star claims that doing such a thing would have been physically impossible.

”No, I never did it in tournaments, I never did because it would have been a disaster. It’s hideous; it’s not the way you feel but what you’re incapable of. Your heart rate runs high enough as it is but to have that kind of heart rate and to tell yourself to calm down and hit a second serve is literally impossible. Then there’s the dehydration factor, the fact you can’t drink a lot of water, you don’t want to eat, you just wanna burn, you wanna burn, you wanna burn. You’d be lucky to last a set; it would not be physically possible to play a match without real health problems.”

Regretting his lies to the Association of Tennis Professionals the tennis star admits that it was the low point of his life, having made a name for himself in a career he didn’t choose for himself (a decision he says his father pushed on him) and hopes that his talking about it can help others who are stuck in a similar place.

“If my story can help one person let alone millions of people who wake up in a life they didn’t choose, wake up in a marriage they didn’t want … if it can help a teenager about to step into the pitfalls I stepped into – then that’s an easy price to pay if the price is some judgments, or some loss of reputation or some false image.”

One of the best ways to learn is to learn from our various life experiences. On various posts, we have shared stories that many may have learned from, regardless of whether these stories are inspiring or sad and disheartening. Quite a number of these stories had something to do with drugs and drug testing.

Most of these stories, however, involve celebrities and their latest misadventures and mishaps. While this may prove interesting to some of us, most of us are not exactly celebrities and will not be able to relate to some of these experiences.

We at TestCountry recognize the fact that the best source of these stories are our readers, and it is for this reason that we would like to encourage you to share your drug testing stories with us. In gratitude to those who will share their interesting stories, we will be giving away $200 grocery rebate cards to those whose stories will catch our attention the most.

You can share you own experiences by posting a comment to this article. From among these stories, we will choose 3 winners to receive $200 grocery rebate certificates, which can be used in any store in the United States. Only readers aged 18 years and above are eligible to participate and post their stories.

You will have about a month to share your stories, as we will be choosing our three winners on December 4. Readers who send in their stories are requested to indicate their real and valid e-mail addresses, as we will send the information on how to claim prizes through email. We would like to assure you that your e-mail addresses will not be published.

So, share your stories now, help someone learn from what you have gone through, and get a chance to win a $200 grocery certificate!

Our friend is very kind to allow us to share her story with you, despite the fact that if and when she does read this, she will most definitely be overcome with great sadness. Still, it is only by sharing this story that she might be able to help other people escape the same fate. We will, however, respect both privacy and memory by keeping their identities to ourselves.

Sisters will always be sisters, no matter how far they may be from each other. And it is that bond of sisterly love that brought an alarming situation to the fore – albeit a tad bit too late.

They lived on practically opposite ends of the world; one stayed home, preferring to live with the security of familiarity. The other’s love for adventure and all things new and exciting brought her to various places, each one different from the other. With this scenario, one would think that the sister who stayed home will remain safe and secure.

This was not the case. Unfortunately, there simply are things that are beyond people’s control – and one of that is how the people around you live their lives.

A couple of streets from where the sister who chose home over adventure lived is a rather reclusive young man who very rarely left his house, and only did so under the cover of darkness. What people did not know was that this house was being used as a makeshift meth lab.

One rainy afternoon, the sister who stayed home was coming off work. What she did not know was that there was violence blooming in the lonely house two streets away. She rarely took the car as the walk home did her a lot of good, and as she was passing by, the recluse emerged from his hideaway; there was, however, a man who lay in wait behind the bushes.

A shot rang out, but did not make its mark. Blonde curls suddenly hit the pavement, and as she lay there dying, her sister from halfway across the globe felt a sudden pain that she cannot explain. She called her sister’s house – but, of course, there was only the machine to take her call. When the phone rang in her humid apartment the day after – the news she dreaded to hear came. And it was all because of meth.

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This is only the first of the several real stories about drugs, drug abuse and drug testing that we will be featuring in the site. We also encourage readers to share their stories. We are coming up with special prizes for those who would like to share. Check us out again for details.