I walked into my AP Statistics class first hour believing that it was going to be just another boring day at school. I was completely mistaken. The only words that I comprehended were ‘mock crash,’  ‘seminar,’ and ‘Fick Auditorium,’ and as someone who is completely out of the loop and unfamiliar with basically everything dealing with Edina High School, I had absolutely no idea what was in store for me.

So there I was, sitting in Fick, stressing out about my math test score (which I do a lot), when EHS Principal Dr. Bruce Locklear walked out on stage and began the presentation. Substance. Driving. Alcohol. Driving. Texting. Driving. Sure, I’ve been told all of this before. Tell me something I don’t already know. It has never been something that I have really concerned myself with because, well, I’m not exactly the ‘partying’ type, but as Edina High School Police Liaison Mr. Brian Hubbard played that first video, it really hit me.

Graphics of happiness ruined by death, stupidity, and alcohol. Gruesome scenes of crashes plagued the screen, and as usual per someone who has a strong stomach and mind, I couldn’t watch the horrors. It was the accuracy of the scenes and the possibility that it could be me, even if I wasn’t the one drinking, that just tore me apart.

As the speaker, Ms. June Kuntze, told the sophomores about the impact of alcohol and driving on her life, the reality just became harsher. As someone who has seen many emergency rooms for various family members (not for car accidents though), her experience really dug deep. It took almost everything I had not to start balling on the spot. Her tragic experience of a completely preventable death that was so close to EHS was eye-opening.

Then of course, just as I couldn’t take anymore, Officer Hubbard had to play another graphic film about texting and driving. Though I watched the screen, I saw what would happen in slow motion to people affected by just a few words. Were those words really worth it? Not at all. Did the seminar prove the point? Without a doubt. As I sat there, no matter how corny this may sound, I took time to reflect on all of the information and images I was seeing, and it altered my view of everything. Even if nobody will admit it, that seminar changed everybody in that auditorium in different ways.