PLEASE DONT DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE

have you ever decided to get into the car and drive under the influence? have you ever stupidly gotten into the car as a passenger with someone under the influence? the game playing of intoxicated Russian roulette when driving under the influence of anything, alcohol, drugs, prescription narcotics isn't really a game the rest of the world needs to become a victim too when you decide ignorantly to get behind a vehicle and venture out into the world selfishly..I was 16 years old when my entire life changed on a may weekend at the hand of a young man who decided it was ok after a party to drive drunk..from what I understood after the fact was this wasn't his first offense, but the one that happen to shattered many lives in the process..we were at a family friends bar mitzvah celebrating that Saturday night with my whole family when we realized by mistake that the keys were left in our car and we needed to find rides home so we could grab the spare set and return to fetch the one at the venue..my parents were getting ready to pull out of our drive way when we got dropped off as they waved goodbye to all 3 of us and said be home shortly..my brothers and I got ready for bed and went to sleep, until I was woken up from my sleep to a phone call..the woman, the family friend of the bar mitzvah boy was on the line asking if my parents were home..i said of course they are half asleep..she asked if I could get up and go and check their bed room and told her to hang on..i got back on the phone after I saw that thy weren't there and said they probably stopped for coffee and would be back soon..not ever thinking another thing I said goodbye and went back to sleep..the next morning I was awoken by my dog going nuts barking and scratching at my door to get out..so I crawled out of bed and took him downstairs to unexpectedly find my brother and my uncle at the kitchen table..i walked right by like nothing was wrong, let my dog out and came back to be told by my dads brother to have a seat..i studied my older brother and saw the tears rolling down his face as my uncle began to explain the tragic events from the night before..i was forced to wake up and be in a moment of this is nuts, to going back upstairs to check their room, to flying back down the stairs to be told we were not able to visit either of my parents until they were stable since my mom had suffered the worst and was hanging onto to dear life..what was supposed to be an easy ride down middlebelt for my parents, turned into a brutal crash that took the life of the drunk drivers passenger and forever changed the lives of my family and every body elses involved..sometimes we make really stupid decisions based on the invincibility we believe we have with no cost factor of how it is going to effect any body else..we choose to behave in a manner and take it into our hands as we venture out into the world not ever caring if there is any body else in our way..so while this asshole of  drunk decided it was ok to drink and drive, no, fly down middlebelt, to then loose control of his car between lone pine and walnut near where you can see the lake, he never once thought of the consequences that happen when you make such tragic mistakes while my parents and him plowed into one another leaving him ejected out his back window, his passenger dead, and my parents mangled in their station wagon that now was now the size of a compact..the negitive decisions you make in life can have a cost to them..this was one of the worst payments someone could ever had made on my family..the injuries that they sustained were horrifying and watching your parents look broken bruised beat up and fragile is something that no child should ever have to witness..this took a physical, emotional, spiritual toll on all of us separately and together as we all suffered the horrible consequences that we had to somehow face together..we were all robbed that night of crucial things that were taken away form us when that idiot decided to drive under the influence..thankfully over time and a years of medical treatment for my mom who suffered from a hang mans broken neck and internal injuries was able to eventually heal enough to resume a normal life in the end..my dad suffered from impact wounds and broken bones and had to hire a dentist to help with his private practice until he was able to return full time and continue life where he had been left off at..as for me, I have a lot of blank spaces in my head from that experience..i have no clue who took care of all of us, and how we got to and from places, who grocery shopped for us, how we got to the hospital and so forth when my parent where in the hospital..i think the emotional trauma that we endured blocked out a lot of the details to protect me from the whole around situation..i just know it was just fucking bad and that I didn't have my parents around to hug me and tell me that it was all going to be ok.. because in truth they were fighting their own battles of recovery ..30 years later..time gives us the power to heal things that once were the tragedy of a very horrible time..when you didn't know if you would come out live, and if you would ever be able to live enough to share your story..my parents were true fighters, with the courage enough to save themselves as they tried to save us in the process..it was the hardest time I can remember for all of us, and a lot of damage was done and was created in the process of this journey we had no other choice but to take..sometimes life gives you an experience worth sharing so you can hopefully educate and possibly save someone else from making one simple stupid forever changing life time of a mistake.. PLEASE DONT DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE..peace love faith hope