DR. WALLACE: I'm a girl who just turned 15. I live with my mom and my little brother. He's only 11 but he's a good kid, so we all get along fine at home. My mother works two different jobs so that we have enough money to pay for our rent, food and clothes. My mom is my hero!

However, because we were always so busy when I was growing up, I never found time to learn how to swim. Now that I'm 15, a lot of my friends want to invite me to a trip to a lake with their family this summer. My first invitation is going to be right around the end of July for a long weekend. I understand they go out on the lake sometimes in a boat, and then they swim a little when it gets too hot. So now I'm afraid to accept any of these invitations since I'm so embarrassed that I don't know how to swim. I'm afraid that the other kids will laugh at me.

My mom doesn't want me to go out on a boat because she's afraid I'll drown if I go into the water. What can I do about this? I feel ashamed, but I don't want to miss out on the opportunities to hang out with my friends. — Nonswimmer, via email

NONSWIMMER: Get busy looking around your town right away! At your age you absolutely can learn to swim pretty quickly. All it takes is a willing attitude on your part and a qualified swim instructor to help you.

See if there are any junior swim programs at a local community pool or even a junior college. You can also ask a trusted teacher to keep your situation confidential but to help direct you to a place you can learn quickly and correctly. It's now nearly the middle of June, so get started right away. You should be ready for late July if you can start soon!

In any case, keep your mother fully apprised of your idea and get her permission in advance before you start any swimming lessons. Humans are natural swimmers, and the sooner one starts the easier this skill is mastered. Fortunately for you, the age of 15 is still quite young in the big picture, so I have every confidence in you to soon become a successful, confident swimmer.

I'M REALLY WORRIED ABOUT MY MISTAKE

DR. WALLACE: I'm 18 and just graduated high school. I've been pretty responsible my whole life, but at my graduation party I did something really stupid. A few guys I know called me to a back room late in the evening, and I could see they had some powdery substance laid out on a wood table, and some of them were snorting a substance using a straw.

I really didn't even have time to think before one of the guys handed me the straw and told me it was my turn. The substance was sort of an off-white color or maybe even a very light brown color with a slight, very light yellow tint to it.

Anyhow, like a fool I did what all of the others did. The rest of my night was not fun at all. I seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, and at some point I remember having a roaring headache. Somehow I got home all right, but the next two full days I felt groggy, worn out and listless. I don't know those guys all too well, so I'm hesitant to try to find one of them to ask them what the substance actually was.

Could I already be addicted now to some substance? Will I have withdrawals and future cravings for more? I realize now that it was a huge mistake to just blindly join in to participate in what that group was doing. Will I ever be a normal person again, and will I ever be able to forgive myself? — Made a bad mistake, via email

MADE A BAD MISTAKE: You indeed made a horrible mistake, and I'm here to tell you that you are lucky to be in a condition to be writing to me, so consider that fact to be the first thing you should dwell on going forward.

In today's world with so many black-market synthetic drugs available and being passed around, it is literally like immediately gambling your life to ingest, snort or consume any unknown substance for the purpose of seeking a high of any kind. Never, ever do this again, no matter who you are with or what peer pressure you might feel. You alone are responsible for your body 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Your body works for you every single day, so pledge to use your mind to make good decisions that are in harmony with your body. Hopefully the scare and hangover effect you've experienced will teach you this lesson one time and one time only.

Immediately forgive yourself and start counting the days you are now back in control of yourself. Quietly celebrate a week, a month and so forth as time passes, and this bad experience will be behind you. Also, at 18, you are in charge of your own medical care, so you may want to visit a medical doctor for a physical to hopefully give you peace of mind that you are not yet addicted or facing long term effects from your horrible mistake.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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