LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Is it worth it?
You may have seen or read the article about me, "Student overcomes coma, near deadly fall," which was published in Central Michigan Life on Wednesday. Yes, it is spectacular the progress I have made, but I have one particular message I want to get across to all college students. The subject is about drinking.
I know lots of college students do it, and a lot do it illegally. Now, I don’t know the exact percentage of students who do or don’t drink, but I am smart enough to guess that at least 80 percent of students do.
Although my recovery has been very inspiring, there may be some who think I am a typical college student, who on my anniversary, went out to have a drink. I learned my lesson; I will never get drunk again.
Try to imagine one day you’re hanging out with friends and the next thing you remember is not being able to walk, talk and you have to eat out a feeding tube. It wasn’t a fun reality! I thought I was dreaming. But this all happened because I decided to drink uncontrollably.
Now, I’m not against drinking; I just think students should think about how much they are going to drink.
I get it; we're young, in a college town, on our own, no parents, drinking, parties, reminisceting from the night before. But we only get one life. Is it really worth risking it? You may think what happened to me will never happen to you. I thought the same thing.
Because of my choices, I couldn’t go out and celebrate my 21st birthday. Instead, I had to participate in countless hours of therapy. I couldn’t even drink for a year. You might think, “Wow, he’s 21 and he can’t drink for a whole year, that sucks.” It did, but that’s what I get for my actions. And no, when I got to school, I still didn’t drink.
You might say, “Well I was at a party with a balcony.”
Do you think I thought about that before I went there? No.
A brain injury can happen to anyone. It’s most common among males between the ages of 18 and 25. I saw someone almost get hit by a car because his drunken friend decided to push him, in the rolling chair he was on, into the street.
Just think about how much life is worth to you before taking that first sip.
Matt Herrod
Livonia junior
