The violent waves crashed into my being

* Do you believe in second chances or even third chances? Please explain why. Is there an extent to how bad an act you do before there are no more second chances? Tell us about a second chance you got or did not get. What have you changed about yourself to make you a better person? 700-1000

Second chances, in my opinion, are man’s best friends.







There is nothing like a clean slate to uplift the spirits. Usually the first time around is filled with contempt, confusion, and obscurity. I have been lucky to have two different experiences with this wonderful activity.

The first was going back to school, and the second was when I broke the law by driving under the influence
A is a criminal act of huge proportions. Not only can you hurt yourself, you could possibly destroy someone else’s life.

One August night of 2010 I decided to leave a party and get behind the wheel of a car when I was completely incoherent.

When I was pulled over by the Police Department, I blew a BAC of 0.227. Luckily no one was hurt, but my life was just about to take a turn for the worst. I was sentenced to jail and another 15 days of house detention.

Now let me depict what my experience was like. Picture a military barracks with bunks in neat rows, where you are your bunk mates are juvenile and hot headed. You have to watch your tongue the entire day because you don’t know what words will offend whom and end up with a blow to the head.

The officers in charge of overseeing the facility believe you are the scum of the earth and they treat you accordingly, no matter how polite you are to them. You have to sleep with the lights on, smell the atrocious odor of the bathroom permeating the air at all times, and listen to men whose snore can compete with a lion’s roar.


The officers get a kick out of scaring you awake in the morning at 5:30 and you are pretty much up all day. You only get a couple hours a day to stretch your legs then its back to your bunk where you lay around going crazy due to boredom. House detention is a little easier, but still boring to no end.

You must inform someone of your whereabouts 24 hours a day, sit around for 2 of those hours tethered to a charging chord for your little ankle “jewelry”, and have someone stare at you while you urinate in a cup. And let’s not forget about the $6,000 I would have to pay. Not fun. I thought my life was over. Here I am with a DUI charge on my record. I was freaking out.


I have heard the horror stories about friends losing possible careers because they had a .

I lost my girlfriend of 5 years. What was my family going to think? I would be shunned by them and forced to survive on my own. I clearly saw my life passing me by like sand falling through your fingers.

I can’t even tell you how many nights I cried myself to sleep. But things were not as bad as I thought. By going through all that turmoil, I learned some valuable lessons.

By being in jail, I learned how to manage my time effectively and make the most out of the time I was allotted to do personal things. Learning how boring it is to do nothing day in and day out, I never waste my time idling. I have to make regular payments on my fees that I had accrued. I was never really good with making payments on time.


After the worst was past me, I felt like a new man. I had a different look on life. It felt like my life had changed and my slate was clean. I felt motivated to stay on the straight and narrow and make something of myself. I knew I never wanted to end up like those whom I shared a room with for 15 days.


This came into my life like a tsunami. The violent waves crashed into my being, incessantly rushing over the choices I had made, and destroyed everything I had created. Relationships, my false sense of security, everything.

The aftermath of this storm left me with some broken bridges and a devastated landscape that was my life, but it was cleared for reconstruction and allowed me to rebuild what I had left barely standing. I was now able to renovate my life.