We all learn something new every day. We all learn from mistakes – but the goal is to make as few mistakes as possible. There is an old expression that good judgment comes from experience, but experience is all too often the result of bad judgment!
Have fun on spring break – but use your head as more than a funnel for alcohol! Pay attention to your surroundings. Ladies, especially, if a situation does not feel right, trust your instincts and leave. Don’t go to parties by yourself! Use the buddy system – the more buddies the better. Don’t tell strangers where you are staying! Always make sure someone knows where you are going! Do not drink so much that you lose control of your faculties!
Make the right decision and the worst that can happen is you lose a night of partying that you can easily make up. Make the wrong decision and the worst that can happen is simply indescribable!
As I used to tell my son: learn from the mistakes of others – because you simply will not live long enough to make them all yourself.
Do not let your ego get in your own way. All young people have this sense of immortality – trust me, you will grow out of that.
Too many of us, though, still go through life with this “it won’t happen to me” outlook. Too few of us realize that virtually every person that has ever been victimized or assaulted has that same outlook.
What you really need to do is ask yourself: What makes you so different from them?
The short answer is: Nothing!
The truth is, if you don’t look out for yourself, it CAN happen to you. Keep your head about you and pay attention to what you are doing and what is going on around you.
Staying safe really does not take that much effort – but it does take SOME effort!
Be Informed! Get Trained! Stay Safe!