Student Outlook -- Lauren Loeb

Sirens blared and the voices of medics echoed through the streets.

I watched as one of my friends was carried off on a stretcher -- her

face bruised so badly it was hard to even recognize her.

My other friend was being read his rights and handcuffed, being put

into a police car.

Two other students that I had had in one of my classes lay lifeless on

the pavement -- one wrapped in a body bag, the other airlifted to the

hospital.

A scene you only imagine in your worst nightmares, a tragedy that

could never happen to you or your friends, right? Wrong.

What started out as the Every 15 Minutes program, put on by a senior

to motivate kids not to drink and drive, turned out to be a life-altering

experience, which touched many of our students’ lives.

From the simulated crash to reading my friends’ tombstones, which

surrounded Corona del Mar High School’s quad, I had to keep reminding

myself that this wasn’t real. That after this was over I could call my

friends and tell them how much they meant to me, and say the things I

never thought of saying until now.

In reality though, this would have been it, I wouldn’t have had the

chance to say my last goodbyes or call them up just to say hi. You don’t

realize the effect of losing someone you care about until it hits you in

the face, and then you are never the same.

As part of the program, the following day, after not seeing the people

involved for 24 hours, the juniors and seniors piled into our gym and

listened to their friends give emotional speeches about their experiences

and watched a video on the events that take place when a drunk driving

accident occurs.

Although we all knew that what we had seen was not actually real, you

could tell from looking around the room that each student was touched by

what they were hearing in some way or another, and they all realized that

such a careless act could lead to an enormous, life-altering consequence.

Each and every day passes you by in a flash, and we should truly stop

and think about the decisions we choose to make before doing so.

Because unlike the simulation we experienced, there is no going back

in time. This is it, our only life to live. So make the right choices and

know that we are not invincible and a tragedy similar to this one can

happen to anyone of us.

* LAUREN LOEB is a Corona del Mar High School junior whose columns

will appear occasionally in the Community Forum section.