Richmond's Own (but unowned) Website

Every fifteen minutes, somebody dies in a drunk driving related accident.  On May 13, 2010, I died.  I died in a car crash caused by a driver under the influence of alcohol. 1 along with 26 other students died for 24 hours. 

Completely cut off from the outside world, from electronic devices, we were forced to come together, to bond with each other, to get to know and love each other.  This was so much more than learning about the dangers of drunk driving.  The past 24 hours showed me how much I had to value in my life.  The value of my friends and relationships.  At the beginning, I wasn't sure about it. I thought the stuff Mr. Withers talked to us about was just the stereotypical teambuilding speech.  I was completely wrong.

24 hours ago, 27 of us came together as strangers.  Today, we left as a family.  I met so many people that I would never have talked to during a regular school day, so many amazing people with different and intriguing life experiences. 

There were fun times too. Drunk goggles at SpeedZone. Coming up with a rap with Peter about not having cell phones.  But there was a lot of deep information too.

I learned that death can come at any time.  Even if you have everything going for you, even if you do everything right, things can happen. Death can happen. There's no use sugarcoating it.  We can try to prevent it, we will prevent it, but it only takes one person to make a bad choice, and in a second lives are changed forever.  Which means we have to live every day to the fullest, to live life without regrets.  It means in the end, all we have are each other.  A computer can't give you love. A phone, an iPod, can't give you love. Only another person can give you love.  And love is just the base, a foundation for a relationship that can be rewarding in ways I can't even express in words.  Relationships take work and take time.  Relationships take physical presence. Relationships take the ability to speak and hear someone's emotions, to read body language.  As much as technology does to help us in our lives, it isolates us as well, so that we don't physically come together.  In the last 24 hours, I loved 26 people so much. 

I saw pictures, horrible pictures, of the consequences.  Death. Sitting right there in front of me. My head kept turning toward and from the screen, like turning from life to death.  I think the worst part about dying isn't the death, but knowing the pain that those around you feel, your parents, your family, your friends.  Which is all the more reason to live life building relationships without regret, for you never know when might be your last goodbye. 

I think my favorite moment was after the funeral before we got to see our parents.  All of us behind the curtain, together for what was probably the last time, all hugging and crying.  These people who I had not known a day earlier are now like family to me.  The sense of comradery, the sense of trust, the sense of love amongst us. Everything Mr. Withers told us yesterday was true.  We were all there for each other, happy and sad, emotions flying, but all of us, together.

And now I'm not sure if I'm ready to re-enter the world of the living again.  I thought I was.  I'm glad to be home with my parents. But as I sit here typing this, I have a sense of loneliness.  No one else can truly know what the 27 of us went through - no one can else can truly know what the 5 of us at the crash scene went through.  Everything now seems so mundane and superficial - a test, a class assignment, a tv show - they all seem to lack meaning and importance.  Being at home now is like being cut off from a family. I already miss the unity, the presence of the others - the love.  But in the end that's all that we have for each other, and it is the most valuble thing that we can have and cherish, and I am so thankful that I the chance to love and be loved.  Every 15 Minutes is more than just a program about not drinking and driving - it truly is a program that opens your soul and makes you realize the worth of yourself and the people around you - the value of life. 

Today I went on the IB hiking trip, along with Mr. Laughlin and 10 other kids at Powder Canyon.  (This entry is going to double as some CAS hour evidence).  We went on about a 1.7 mile loop, and I wish I brought my camera so I could share some amazing views, but alas I forgot to bring it.  But it was a wonderful way to spend the first day of Spring!

To be honest, before going, I was somewhat apprehensive, and wasn't sure what to expect.  But was I in for a surprise.  I had never gone hiking in the Powder Canyon area, and needless to say, I thouroughly enjoyed today's hike. 

Mr. Laughlin was a great choice for an advisor too.  It was a very active experience to have him along, especially because he has a lot of knowledge about nature.  We saw a red tailed hawk, potato bugs, various types of sage, wild cucumber, walnut trees, and poison oak!  It was a great experience for me, and at the top of the first hill we climbed, there were some beautiful views of the valley (well, there was the ever present haziness of the smog, but besides that!)  We were even able to see the Rowland gym (well Mr. Laughlin saw with his binoculars. I just kind of squinted in the general area - should have brought a pair myself).  I was also surprised with how happy other people on the trail were - a couple, bikers, and even a family with a stroller and baby. 

After the hill crest, we descended into the canyon itself - which was a lot cooler, due to the trees overhead.  It was nice to see everything green, since we had such a great rainfall this year. We saw a dry (but moist!) creekbed - very Jurassic Park: The Lost World like, where the stegos are. But it was breathtaking all around.

So I never realized this little gem that we have in our backyard. And thanks to that, I'm more aware of the importance of nature, and how we should try to preserve it.  There's a bit of irony that in protecting it, we're building trails to let people come into it. But I think it's important to educate people about nature, and the only way to do that is to let them experience it for themselves.  And trails are alot less intrusive than houses built along the ridge which disrupt animal traffic.  At any rate, humans have been making trails through nature for thousands of years.  Nevertheless, this has helped me become more aware of how we should treat nature with respect and protect the jewels of nature around the world from the encroaching posion of civilization.  If we could just - step aside - life - will find a way.

Just some thoughts about my latest school involvement work to get a guest speaker for the Rowland High School 2010 Graduation - in a semi secret fashion - so I'll continue that here. 

So it was about 2 weeks ago, when I came across the '\@& )$ |#! %|# competition on Twitter. (The symbols don't stand for letters, so don't even try).  And I sent it to a certain school counselor who suggested I send it to the principal.  Basically what ended up happening without going into too much detail is that the principal said yes, and I got a group of a few people together.  @*;!%## and (#!$^& are who I contacted first, and then letter a couple others.  Needless to say, we met with @%@ !&*#&& to talk about things to put in the application and so forth.  And then Sunday night was at my house for about 8 hours to write up the thing, as well as today at school, some of the group staying until past 8. 

Anyways, the important thing about this, even if the guest speaker isn't able to come to our graduation is that we took a stand - well more like staked a position I suppose - but that we took some sort of action, which I think is more than alot of people do, and that puts us ahead by a lot.  In one of my interviews (a college scholarship interview for #^ #(*^#)@), I talked with my interviewer (a very nice lady and professor of education), about the idea of standing up, and she said something that impacted me.  When you stand up and say something, the other side can never say that they were uninformed.  Because it's important to know that you may not be able to change everything, to convince everyone to your point of view.  But you can still speak.  Just because they don't act isn't cause for us to put a self imposed censorship of silence upton ourselves.  In fact, it only serves to motivate us more to speak out, and at the least, the very least, the other side can no longer say that they did not know how we feel.  And that probably is what creates the key difference.  We know how we feel. And now they do, and what they do with our information is in their hands, but we can be proud that we didn't let this opportunity just slide by, no matter what the outcome.

In retrospect, I think I really enjoyed this process.  Which kind of reminded me of political dealings - last minute mark ups to the speech language, that sort of thing. A couple years ago I wondered what it would be like to be a speechwriter as a career.  Maybe it's time to take a look back at that idea.