Alcohol – A short lived life

Drivers Education Story Scholarship

Lucas Burridge

It was my Senior year of high school in 2016, not to long ago to be quite honest. I, and a few others decided to partake in activities that are not legal at that given age. I was 18 years old along with several of my friends. Though we did not think much of it at the time, we still decided to do what we did without even second guessing ourselves.

For confidential reasons, I will be changing names and locations to ensure the privacy towards my friends and others included.

I started the day just as any senior in high school would, woke up at seven o’clock in the morning to start my day. It was March 11^th, 2016. I didn’t think much of this morning as it was a regular dull morning as most of my senior mornings were. I took the bus to my high school at 7:25 in the morning and a few of my close friends from elementary school were on the bus already. I had four very close friends from elementary school through high school and continuing now in college. Kevin, who was a little shy but a good athlete and seemed to be on pace of going to University of Wisconsin, as his parents never allowed him to get less than a B in any class. Joe, who was a good athlete but struggled with academics. His parents always wanted him to make his own decisions. Which I respected but wished they would have a cared a little more about his academics. He was just going to go to trade school after college, so he didn’t care to much when we did poor on exams. Myself, a good enough athlete, and subpar student in the classroom. I envisioned that I would never receive any type of athletic scholarship, so I was set on the military. (Growing up I was raised with my Mom for some time due to my Dad’s addiction to alcohol. After my Dad got sober and without seeing him for three years, he decided to take part in me, and my three brothers lives and got full custody of us and never touched alcohol again once he got custody of us.) I never thought alcohol would be such a factor in my life from a young age, through high school and now college. My last friend was Max, a straight A student who excelled in sports. Now Max grew up in a nice family, but things never seemed to be going well for him. Now back to the story, once I walked onto the bus, I immediately saw Max, Joe, and Kevin with smiles to their ears. At this point I KNEW something was going to happen this weekend. They told me that Max’s parents were gone for the weekend so throughout the day we talked about our individual plans for this weekend and ended up agreeing that Friday would be the best night to drink because his parents would be oblivious to it. We end up drinking later that night and I passed out earlier than everyone else at 11:45 pm. Kevin and Max passed out around 2 am and Joe somehow managed to stay up a little longer. Joe decided that he was a little hungry and drove no more than a mile to go to a near gas station. He made it to the gas station safely but on his way back he drove through a stop sign and he ended up driving into a biker and luckily the biker did not get seriously injured but he did break his wrist and get a concussion. My friend Joe did get arrested for drunk driving even though he drove less than a mile but still did get in an accident and could have taken the bikers life. He has since quit drinking and made it very clear to me and others that he will never drink and drive again. I think driver’s education is important because you are risking your life and others lives when you decide to drink and drive. Not only that but your risk the trauma into their lives as well. Growing up without your brother or sister, son, daughter, mother, father, aunt, uncle knowing that it could have been avoided with just not touching the wheel after drinking is a sad reality that unfortunately a lot of people must deal with. Drinking and driving can be avoided by taking keys of those who are drinking and put them in a safe spot until they are sober the following day. That would ensure no one could get in a vehicle and drive it while intoxicated. To this day Kevin, Joe, and myself are still best friends. People make mistakes and move on. Sadly, this past winter Max got his life taken away while away at college by a drunk driver, he was walking to his apartment after leaving Organic Chemistry around 4pm on a Thursday. As this happened, I PROMISED to myself, my friends, and my family that if I take a sip of alcohol that I will never drive and that I will do my best to prevent people from driving drunk as well. RIP Max