“This is gonna be awesome!” That’s all I was thinking as I was drinking outside of the high school with a couple of my friends. They both told me it was Jaeger mixed with cranberry juice in a water bottle about the size of a fifth of vodka. They both drank some and then told me to drink as much as I could. I started drinking it and it tasted like candy so I drank about half the bottle before one of them told me to stop. They drank until there were two or three inches left and gave it back to me. I grabbed it, looked at how much was left, and I hear “drink the rest! Drink all of it!” so that’s exactly what I did.

I went back into the dance and started talking to my friends. I had three pieces of cinnamon gum so no one could smell the alcohol on my breath, but my friends could tell I was drinking. I couldn’t walk very straight but people don’t walk straight a lot while they are at the dance so that wasn’t very obvious, what gave it away was how I was acting. I wasn’t being obnoxious or stupid I just wasn’t being myself. I didn’t talk very much but when I did say something people normally found it to be pretty funny. I had a great time at the dance and when it ended I found out my friends dad was giving me a ride. That would normally be fine but his dad was a cop and I was drunk and I was sure he was going to notice. However we were both tired and the talking was kept to a minimum and his dad never noticed. I got home and my parents were asleep so I went to bed. I woke up the next morning and was really happy because I had an awesome time. We won both of the football games and then I had an amazing time at the dance. The next day I went to school and everything was normal. Some friends and I laughed about the dance but nothing happened.

The next week it was Monday and everyone was excited because the football team was going to state. In second period my teacher got a call and told me that I was wanted in the office. I walked to the office trying to figure out what it was for and finally I decided they just wanted to question me about a party that had occurred because I was a football player and they had questioned the rest of us. I went in and saw Dr. Gee and the vice principal and that reassured me that’s what it was for. They had me sit down and then Dr. Gee said, “You’re in here because we have many comments from students saying you were drinking at the homecoming dance.” Now at this point I had thoughts flashing through my head at a million miles per hours. “Maybe I should deny it, why would students go to him, who was it?” I had many other ideas but these were the most dominant in my mind. However when he told me that he had several comments from students it reassured me that honesty was the best way to go so I told him that I was drunk at the dance. Then he started explaining what was happening and I was thinking, “well this sucks I’m gonna get in trouble at home and I don’t get to go to state, meaning the state football game that weekend,” when he told me, “the maximum punishment is 45 days suspension.”

I was completely taken aback by this. He then explained to me that the punishment was so sever because it was on school campus. I was very upset this really was going to affect me. He had me go sit in a room and stay there until my mom got there to pick me up. My friend Jaruby was in the room with me so I wasn’t alone so I didn’t get to upset about it right then. When my mom got to the school we went in and Dr. Gee told us that it was a thirty day suspension but if we completed the ATOSS program then it would be cut back to fifteen days. He then explained to us that we come in after school every day for a study hall, have twenty hours of community service, two online drug and alcohol classes, and that we have to go take an assessment to see if we have a drinking problem. We told him thanks for letting us know about the program and he said he’s really sorry about it because he knows this isn’t a normal thing for me or Mark to do.

As soon as we got in the car our mom started questioning us about it but we were both really upset and didn’t answer. When we got home our mom told us that we were grounded no phones, no friends coming over or going to their house. We went inside and kind sat around until school ended and we had our study hall. We went in and they told us how they would get us our work and tests and that their goal was for this to not affect our grades if they could help it. Mark and I both realized that its weird for us to have people think we aren’t good kids cause we really are and we both said that we aren’t going to let it affect our grades and are going to stay in shape so when we get back we do really good in wrestling.

This really affected my life not only because I’m never going to drink again until I am twenty one, but also because it put into perspective how important certain things are to me. Not only did I realize how important school is to me as well as being in some sport not just football, but I also realized how important my reputation is to me. I really like people thinking I’m a good kid. I don’t really care what most people think about me but I realized how much I had let down the people that it does matter to me what they think and that’s one of my biggest problems with the situation. That’s why I’m so set on keeping my grades and athleticism to show them that I am still a good person.