Field House Violation

The night that resulted in my conduct violation started out as a typical Friday evening; it was the weekend before spring break and some friends and I were hanging out on my dorm floor watching TV in the lounge and talking amongst ourselves. It was then that another guy from the floor came to the lounge and asked who was coming to bottomless at Fieldhouse. A few people raised their hand, but my brother and I were hesitant, which prompted some of our friends to quite literally beg us to come. I eventually give in and agree to tag along, though my brother decided to stay behind, and we all set off to get ready for the evening. Once everyone was ready, we set out on the trek from Rollins to Fieldhouse, the group consisting of about 5 guys and 8 girls, all dressed in our Sunday best and hoping to have a good time. As we arrived at Broadway and waited for the crosswalk to signal that we could cross the street and go to the bar, we began to space out the guys in our group between girls, because large groups of guys are more likely to have someone get denied, and when the

‘Walk” sign lit up before us we proceeded across the street and to the bouncer. Everyone made it in with no problem, paid our cover, got our cups, and made our way to the bar for the first round of drinks, started with a long island iced tea. As soon as everyone’s cup was full we made our way upstairs to drink and socialize amongst ourselves. The night went on, more drinks were had, and I made my way between the dance floor in the back and the bar in the front, dancing with girls, talking with friends, and generally just enjoying myself. After a few hours had passed, I was on about my eighth long island, and dancing with a girl when a mutual friend of mine came up and told me that he thinks that everyone I came with had left. As I said, I’m eight drinks deep over the course of about three and a half hours, so I was drunk, but coherent and was confused by this revelation, because I couldn’t believe they would just ditch me. I found out after the fact that a couple of the guys I had come with had gotten it through their heads that it would be a good idea to have a drink off between the two of them, drank at least 12 mixed drinks each and took tequila shots as well, which left neither of them in any condition to stay, so my friends brought them back to the dorm without realizing they were leaving me behind. I then decided to stick with this mutual friend because he didn’t have anyone to walk back to campus with him either, and we live relatively close to each other. At around 1:45AM we agreed it was about time to head back to the dorms.
My mutual friend and I then made our way out of Fieldhouse and out to the streets of Columbia, heading down Broadway towards S 9th St, and proceeded back towards the center of campus. The walk down 9th St was uneventful, my friend and I were just walking, talking, and laughing as we went, focusing mostly on how pumped we were for spring break that was only a week away. The excitement began when we got to the stairs on the West side of the Student Center, when I decided to sit on the handrail of the bike ramp and continue the conversation, because my friend then relayed a story about a guy that went to high school with me, who also lives on this guy’s floor, making a fool of himself when drunk. This story made me laugh quite vehemently and, ironically, created a story of my own, because while shaking with laughter, I managed to lose my balance on the hand rail and began to fall backwards. Upon seeing this, my friend, who was sitting across from me, reached out and tried to grab me, but was only able to grab me by the pant legs of my khakis, causing me to become a human pendulum and hit the back of my head directly on the corner of the concrete below the handrail. This impact left me with a slice in my head, which began to bleed profusely. Once my friend lowered me the rest of the way to the ground and saw the growing puddle of blood, he immediately began trying to flag someone down to help. Unfortunately, people seemed to assume he was just some drunken idiot messing around in the road and simply honked, yelled profanities, then drove around him, but thankfully an MUPD car was driving by and he managed to get their attention and request their help. After conversing with the officers and explaining what had happened, an ambulance was called, despite my protests that my brother could drive me, I was loaded in by the paramedics, and, after arguing with the officers, my brother was allowed to accompany me to the hospital. At the hospital I was subjected to a slew of tests and a CT scan to check if I had internal bleeding or any damage to my skull, thankfully neither were the case, and all I ended up needing was four staples to help the wound heal faster and minimize scarring. Due to the presence of a medical emergency, I was protected by medical amnesty laws from facing any repercussions from the police, but still received an email from the conduct board a few weeks later.
This incident was definitely an eye opening experience for me, because even though I wasn’t falling all over myself drunk when it happened, my intoxication, as well as my friend’s intoxication, likely had in impact in how everything turned out.

It was also scary for me to think what could have happened if A) my friend hadn’t been there or B) he hadn’t been the type of guy to stick with me and flag down help, because if I had been alone and suffered and injury like that, who knows how long I would have lain there bleeding before someone found me, or if I would be found alive at all. As an engineering student, my career goals are contingent on my mind, so the idea that one poor choice could put those in question is something that will stick with me for years to come, because everyone likes to have fun, but no one wants to be paying for that fun for the rest of their lives, always wondering “what

if?”
I actually found the BASICS course to be a very useful experience, as it showed me more of the risks associated with drinking, and how one wrong decision, which is the kind of decision drunk people are prone to making, can lead to a great deal of repercussions. I got lucky that night that I was able to walk away with no lasting consequences, in that I did not receive a legal charge that could impede my ability to get a job in the future or having any long term medical impacts because I did not have a concussion and once the staple were taken out all I was left with was a thin scar that is covered by my hair, whereas a number of the other people in the class were in the midst of court battles waiting to hear their fates, a situation I have no desire to be in myself. In the time since the incident I have stopped going to the bars all together, because the risks outweigh the benefits, but if I go to a party where drinking is involved I now make sure that I stick with the people I came with, or at the very least ensure that someone knows where I am to avoid being left behind again, as the old saying goes, there is safety in numbers. My drinking has dropped significantly since this all went down, though I can’t claim to have stopped entirely. I was pleasantly surprised, however; to discover that according to the BASICS survey I exhibited safe drinking habits prior to this incident, with my typical peak BAC a mere 0.019 and my highest being 0.128, which is high but not overly dangerous. I definitely plan to use the knowledge I gained from BASICS to ensure that when I do choose to drink going forward it is in a safe manner so that I can avoid ever having end my night in an ambulance and calling my family from the emergency room again.