Reaching New Highs: My Experience Getting High for the First Time

Not that I really ever thought that I would get to this point, but here I am. If I am going to be completely honest, it’s not that I would ever publish my thoughts on this experience to the world, but more so that I thought I would never try it. I think it goes without saying though that this article is going to be anonymous and will vaguely allude to my personal background because I would still like to find a job in the future, that’s beside the point. 

First off, I grew up in an extremely conservative state, where marijuana is entirely illegal. There’s no beating around that bush. It wasn’t until I came to AU that I really heard of people who actually used marijuana and spoke openly about their experiences with it. Sure, kids would still have to find places off campus to smoke, because AU is still technically federal property, but that bump in the road never stood too great a challenge to students. Having come from that conservative background of my hometown, I still refrained from drinking and doing drugs like marijuana in my freshman year because I still associated it with a great deal of judgment and punishment. 

This year, however, I took minor steps to get out of this comfort zone and try to make the best of my college experience in my second year of college (even if it were under certain restraints of social distancing because of COVID-19). Randomly while talking to one of my friends, who was notorious in our friend group for going out to smoke at least twice a month in the previous year, I mentioned my interest in potentially trying out marijuana for the first time. Never before had I seen my friend this excited, truly. Immediately plans were made for the following weekend and all I had to do was wait. Excited, but also nervous about doing something mildly out of my comfort zone all I could think about was what I had seen in movies and tv shows before. I built up this image of what my first time trying marijuana would feel like and the out-of-body experience I would have. 

Come Saturday night, I was so excited to try marijuana for the first time, but I felt like I had to live up to this expectation my friends set for me because they were so interested in witnessing a person’s first experience with drugs. Let me tell you, it was not as amazing as I thought it would be. I definitely did not expect it to feel like my lungs were burning with what I can only describe as the smell of true TX BBQ ashes. Definitely did not make the smart decision to bring water and my inhaler (something I forgot to mention to my friend, my bad). Inhaling, waiting, and exhaling was definitely more painful than I thought it would be, but I guess practice makes perfect. I don’t know if I expected feeling on top of the world or truly out of it, but in reality, I only felt as though I were a bit tipsy. The world spun, the night sky took on a new hue of blue that I thought looked straight out of Avatar, and I certainly did get clumsy and trip over my friends, but all at a pace where I still felt in control of my body and actions. While I don’t think I lived up to my friend’s expectations of my first time getting high, I think I definitely would try again, just more prepared to deal with the deep burn, or maybe by trying other variations of it. Overall, while I definitely was in more pain (scratchy-throat wise) than I thought I would’ve been in, I’m grateful that I stepped past my normal boundaries, especially with my friends by my side. 

Photos: Her Campus Media