Jenna's House of Idiosyncrasies Version 10.0 [Focus.]

The first time I ever took some one's keys away, I was just a few weeks into my freshman year of college.

I know drunk driving must have been a issue when I was in high school, but it was on a different scale, because there wasn't the regular activity of pre-gaming and then going downtown. We went to parties, did shots in people's kitchens, drank Everclear mixed with coke because it was cheap and lasted twice as long. People would gather at one place and basically have a huge lock in. It was a caused by a couple of factors. In a small town where the cops don't have much to do, every one had a heightened paranoia about being pulled over and arrested. There was no where to enjoy your drunkenness except for the place where you were already drunk. If you went home, you went to your parent's home, so you might as well just sleep it off and face them sober.

I'm not a stickler for the rules, but I do feel pretty strongly about drunk driving. I've always been vehemently against it. And before I moved to Athens, I assumed this was an issue that my peers and I more or less universally agreed upon. However, just like realizing how much groceries actually cost, worrying about health insurance, and coming to terms with your parents being just human like the rest of us, part of growing up is understanding that everyone—even people you like, people you love, and people you truly admire—makes bad decisions on a regular basis. More often than learning from them they actually learn nothing from them. Especially when there are no immediate ill consequences.

However, when I was new freshman, I was still charmingly naïve. Years of PSAs and television dramas had actually convinced me that you could keep someone from driving drunk if you were determined enough, and had determined that no one would ever drive drunk on my watch.

My roommate at the time, Sonya, had a bunch of her friends visiting from her hometown, and staying with us in our tiny dorm room. They pre-gamed in our room and then it was time to head downtown.

The original plan was to walk, but standing in front of the building, facing the trek down the hill, the group, pretty drunk and unruly, decided to drive. Although I was pretty much sober, I don't remember how I managed to get the keys from the driver, but I clearly remember what happened next.

After a brief but good natured argument about how no, they were not going to get the keys back, they were just going to have to walk, the driver, who was a head shorter than me but fairly strong, picked me up. I protested as he threw me over his shoulder, pounding on his back with my fists, keys still in hand. He then spun around at a rather frightening speed. The whole situation was actually pretty funny, even at the time, but I was still nervous, and after screaming like a girl for about 45 seconds I dropped the keys with a loud twang! onto the sidewalk. “There! You have them back! Put me down!”

The driver picked up the keys and took off into the night with the group. Refusing to get into a car with a driver who had been drinking was still something I outright refused to do, so I stayed behind.

Things have not gotten easier since that point. As a drunk, I hang out with lots of other drunks. I don't know how anyone can drink and drive on a regular basis. I've done it twice, and both times I realized halfway to my destination that I was too drunk to be driving, and it was honestly terrifying. I happen to be one of the few that has the luxury of being walking distance from the bar, so while I always get home safe, I often have to compromise my principles by letting people go on their merry way. They head to their cars, keys in hand, while I stroll home, hoping they don't get arrested, or worse, get into some kind of accident. Some friend of my newish roommate is one thing, but when I can't say the right combination of words to a dear friend of my own, to get them to listen to reason, to just not take that chance, minuscule though it may be, it makes me feel like a bad friend. It makes me feel like I have failed the people I care about.

In a way, I'm being dramatic. I shouldn't feel personally responsible for the actions of other adults. But I know several people who've been arrested for driving under the influence just hours or minutes after I personally asked them not to drive. I assume it's just a matter of time, a matter of odds, before something more serious happens. And then I'll really feel guilty.