1. Have you ever drank alcohol?
2. Have you ever rode in a vehicle after the driver has been drinking or taken drugs?
3. Have you ever operated a vehicle after drinking or taking drugs?
4. Do you know anyone who has been killed by a drunk driver, or someone who has killed someone by drinking and driving?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions...remember...one second can end up being the last second you or another will have.
October 2nd, 2010 I decided to get into a vehicle after consuming over fifteen beers and several shots of tequila. I was new in town, so I decided to show up the boys who THOUGHT they knew how to drink. I was a female, and most females feel as if they need to prove they can drink a man under the table. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Females have a higher water content in their body, so it is a proven fact that females get intoxicated faster and stay intoxicated longer than males. Point is, male or female, trying to out drink someone is really ignorant. The more you drink, the less your mind is able to make decisions that you'll stand by in the morning.
I was court ordered to do a lot for my DUI. I had to commit to fifty hours of community service, attend a class for two months about alcohol and drug abuse, take a class about safe drivers, and visit a prison. In my prison tour, I was in a group of about twenty girls. We had to hold hands with another girl and walk in a straight line. We were in the inmates home. No bars, no windows, no fence in between these prisoners. Our tour guides were four female inmates that had been locked up for sixteen years. Those four shared their stories with us. I was not only the youngest in my group, but the only one with a DUI. Out of the four, two of the inmates made sure to present their stories straight towards me...for driving under the influence was the very reason they were wearing that tan uniform with a printed reminder reading "inmate". One of them was arrested at 19. She was very similar to the person I was back then... a partier that always said, "Oh, I drive better drunk." She said that until she killed a three month old child by drinking a driving. The second woman was someone who still sends chills down my spine to this day. She told me that she was never a heavy drinker, that she had maybe been to three bars in her entire life. One day she had a couple beers and remembered she had to pick up a few things at the store. She then began to tell us that she wrecked and killed two children... an eight and two year old. As she paused, she continued to tell us that those two kids were her very own children inside her vehicle. She then put in my hands, pictures of her two children and of the vehicle after the wreck. That was the day that I realized I never will step foot in a vehicle after drinking or if the driver has been drinking.
The one thing I did, that wasn't court ordered, was grow as a person and learn to appreciate getting a DUI. During my process, I was living with my mother and my grandparents. My entire family drinks. Whether it's all day, a couple drinks a day, three times a week... my family drinks. My point in saying this is, it's not easy to quit when you're surrounded by drunks. It either makes you want to drink again or it makes you want to enforce them to quit. As tough as it got to get my point across sometimes, eventually my family supported me in my decision to quit. I have alcoholics on both my mother's and father's side of the family. I'm very prone to becoming a serious alcoholic. But learning from my mistakes in the past and seeing what condition I would be in if I kept drinking, makes drinking never an option.
From a sober mind,
Amanda Rae
