As I walked down to the parking lot this morning I was not prepared for the impact of what was about to happen. As a junior, I have heard the speeches and health class lectures on not drinking and driving. I knew I would never drink and drive and I did not think this would change my feelings. Last summer I lost my best friend to drinking and driving, and you hear about it happening in the news constantly, but the impact of what it is like to be in one did not hit me until today. It is one thing to lose someone, and to hear about someone dying, but to be there in the moment is an entirely different kind of experience altogether. The scene was surreal, and I can still hear the sounds of the woman screaming, covered in blood and clutching the hands of her injured son. I can still see the casket of the lost daughter, wheeled across the parking lot. Even though it was not real, I could feel the loss. I felt the loss I knew all too familiarly from losing many people in my life, including one to drunk driving. The realistic portrayal of the crash was vivid, heart-wrenching, and as I looked around the crowd of my fellow students, I could see it caught the full attention of the student body. To the right of me, two girls held each other, heads down with solemn faces, unable to look any longer. Just behind me, I began to hear a sniffle that gradually grew into a sob. I turned around to see the heartache of a student, affected by the scene. It is unfair for anyone to have to experience something as terrible as losing someone, but at the expense of a drunk driver? Unthinkable. My only hope is that juniors and seniors, as well as the staff who viewed the horrific scene acted out today, have realized what it really means to lose someone in a drunk driving accident. I hope they come to terms with the true consequences of drinking and driving. Most importantly, I encourage my fellow students to be the person who pulls the keys out of a drunk driver’s hands, who takes the initiative to call the police in these situations. If the crash wasn’t enough, hopefully the solemn face of the woman who took time to share with us how she lost her daughter in a crash reached them. Change is something we would like to enact in the world, and I believe a positive change would be to stop the epidemic of drunk driving. Think first, and make the right decision.