It is unfortunate that I am required to write this essay, however, I feel that it is necessary not only because it is required but because it allows me to see my true mistakes. For a while, I thought that I could anything my heart desired and not receive any kind of consequence. For a while my hypothesis was correct without any room for improvement. Then one fateful night at my Homecoming game, I made the erroneous decision to drink before I entered the game. .
To me alcohol was a very social thing and a football game is a very social event. I was under the impression that it was acceptable to drink before going out even though I was underage. I thought that the law was very unfair; you can fight and die for your country but you can't drink, all other countries have a lower drinking age but here the age is twenty-one. So just as in any other democratic society the people have a strong voice and the ability to protest and revolt, and that's just was I was doing, in a more mild civil way. To me, the idea of underage drinking was not practical it was realistic.
Then I was arrested. All of a sudden my ideas about underage drinking when from a reality to a distant fantasy. My "ordeal" lasted about nine months and at the end of it all I received fines exceeding one thousand dollars, a year's probation, and an experience to last me a life time. As part of my punishment I was required to take a risk reduction class, which I found stimulating. The class taught me so much not about how alcohol is bad but how my choices can ultimately affect my life and the lives" of others. For a time, I was on the proverbial mind train that I could never hurt anybody by my use of alcohol or even myself. I soon learned that my views could not be more skewed. I wish now that I could have seen my mistakes so I would not have to go through the trouble that I have already gone through. It makes sense to me now that I need to make some changes in my life style and that in the future I need to think more about the choices that I make and how they will affect others.
