Most news stories one hears just goes in one ear and out the other. It may resonate with some for a few minutes where that person feels devastated from the world producing cruel events. But, for something to change your opinion and you learn from mistakes, you have to endure the action and realize how it affects you and the surrounding people. Typically, most news revolves around negative stories and that is why that reaction stays with you for a few seconds. There is so much negative going on it is tough to remember all of it.
When going on with life these news stories continually accumulate but not one time have I actually understood that anything similar could happen to me. One of these events did not happen to me personally, but someone in my community in the same age group was affected. His name was Francis Duddy, a junior who attended Donovan Catholic. On February 8th, 2014 he was killed in a drunken driving accident by his best friend Connor Hanifin. I did not hold a personal relationship with either of these fellow high school students; but I was attending the same party they were.
I did not even see them or meet them when I was there. The party was fun and fit the format of any other typical high school party in America. While the festivities were going on, teenagers scrambled trying to find a designated driver to get them home, as always. Usually everything works out and everyone gets home safely; instead this time it did not. The next morning I woke up bright and early to attend my SAT prep class. Like always, I would wake up shower, check twitter and other news sources as I would eat my breakfast, and drive off to the class.
This time when I checked twitter, I saw an abundant tweets headlined saying, “#RIPFrancisDuddy”. At once, I was aware of the situation and was distressed. An innocent kid who lived in the same area as me made a poor decision by getting in the car of a drunk driver and his life was taken away. The amount of parties that occur during high school and not one of these situations has happened. One rare slip-up or poor decision can lead to the loss of a life. I never have got into the car with a drunk driver nor have I let an intoxicated driver get behind the wheel of a car.
So, you may be asking what lesson I learned. I already knew the consequences of an event involving those factors. But, it affected me in the way that no one is mortal and these things can actually happen to people. No one ever wants to think that it could happen to them, but if you put yourself in the wrong position, it most definitely can. Hearing something over and over again might make you think about the topic, but experiencing it makes you adjust to keep that topic from taking place.
