This past week I gained some learning experience not in the academic realm, but within the outside world. A group of friends and I went to Destin, Florida for spring break this past week and we thought the vacation would go off without a hitch. Only a few people in the house were of drinking age and, shocking as it may sound, the rest of us were not entirely fans of alcohol. We intended on having a week of laying on the beach and enjoying the beautiful weather and white sand before returning to the reality of school. This semester had been stressful and we all needed a break, so what is better than a week at the Gulf? Our time started off calm, walking to Henderson Beach and relaxing the hours away. Nothing could ruin our time away from school and responsibilities, just taking in the sun... the third night, however, an ordeal occurred that none of us could have prepared for.
I was in my room, talking to a friend, when another girl from our group came in. "Kiley, Jack's (we'll call him Jack) face is yellow and his lips are purple." Jack is 21 and experienced in his drinking habits, but that day he had only been on the beach with the rest of the group and had slept through the late afternoon. I walked into the kitchen to check on him and sure enough, his coloring was worrisome. I came up to the side of him and asked, "Jack, how ya doing, buddy?" Almost as if my words were a trigger he fell forward and I caught him before his head hit the counter, and immediately moved him to the ground because he stopped breathing. We got someone on the phone with 911 and someone in the house stepped up who knew CPR was ready to have to resuscitate him. We rolled him on his side and held his head as he began to convulse, and by the time the paramedics got there we had everything under control. They checked his vitals and said he was fine, advised us to go to the hospital, and 5 1/2 hours later we had a doctor tell us that he was dehydrated and just needed to watch his fluid intake.
The rest of the week actually did go off without a hitch, and we moved on from the issue fairly quickly. I watched Jack like a hawk the rest of the week, even making him sleep in my bed downstairs so I could monitor him the first night after the incident. As scary as the ordeal was, I feel like I grew not only in how I saw myself but how I saw my friends. Overall this was a traumatizing event. We were incredibly lucky to have everything turn out fine and everyone be healthy, because things could have ended in such a tragic way. What I gained from this was a respect for my friends and the calmness they maintained through the whole event. We all kept our heads and showed immense maturity in a stressful situation, and it made me realize that maybe I was more prepared for the real world than I thought I was. There has been so much talk about my honors thesis, graduate school, career paths, and all these things that are at least three years off and that I have been trying to avoid for a while because, quite frankly, the thought of growing up scares me. After that night, I realized I can handle a lot more stress and pressure than I thought I was capable of, and that I had well-rounded friends who can provide a reliable support group. The future is inevitable and scary, there is no denying that, but realizing your own potential and the resources you have around you can help you learn it's not as intimidating as it seems.
