I got all dressed up in my cutest clothes and went to the bars because I knew He would be there– the cute, oh so smart boy I’d had a crush on for over a year. I found out that night that he had a crush, too– on my best friend.
So I got drunk. Very, very drunk. Then, walking home to my sorority house, I took out my anger on the window of the chemistry lab. Glass shattered, alarms went off, and the campus cops arrived. I think I ran, but was quickly caught.
As I sobered up in a cold jail cell, some Assistant State’s Attorney looked at my case…and miraculously decided not to charge it. I rode the bus home, ashamed, embarrassed, but with my future still intact.
Six years later, I returned to that college town as a public defender, where I could help others with their stupid decisions. Today, I have a job I love, a beautiful house in a nice part of town, and I can afford to send my kids to private school. All because my case never became a case, and I never became a statistic.