But it won't happen to me.
I bet that thought has gone through your mind at least a dozen times, if not more, throughout your life. It's such a naive thought that gave you a false sense of invincibility. And for some reason, you tended to believe it because in your mind, you were the exception. This false sense of invincibility had you under the impression that repercussions do not apply to you. Disaster could not strike you. Those terrible circumstances that happen to other people avoid you because, well, you're you.
Fortunately, a lot of us have outgrown this dangerous mindset, but for those of you who haven't: I hate to break it to you, but you are human; therefore, you are the furthest thing from invincible. You are no less susceptible to consequence.
As a college student, I see that many of my peers still carry this false sense of invincibility. They think that they're special enough to conquer any situation or do anything regardless of the dangers associated with it. The people who still have this mindset are more concerned with doing what they want when they want rather than taking the repercussions into consideration. They tend to value living in the moment (#YOLO) rather than thinking about how their actions will impact their future.
In the last couple of years, this subject has been on my mind quite a bit. I've been exposed to some of the ugliness that life has to offer, and it made me snap out of that mindset. I saw some life-altering - even, unfortunately, life-ending - events involving my peers, and I realized that could have been me.
Think back to the car accident involving those four University of Georgia students that happened a little over a month ago. Although I did not know the girls personally, they were all around my age, and a couple of them even grew up close to my hometown. I saw my Facebook friends posting pictures and statuses in their memory, and I saw the grief and despair of my community. All these connecting factors made this tragedy a little more real to me than the typical, yet unfortunate, tragedies that I've seen frequently on the news. What really got me was that they were doing something that most people, including myself, do almost every day without a second-thought: driving. When you're driving to work or class, I bet you don't think about all the terrible outcomes that could occur if you take your eyes off the road for just one second. If you take that turn just a little too fast. If you forget to check your blindspot just once. Right now, it's unclear what exactly caused that accident in particular (the driver crossed the center line because of unknown reasons), but anytime you step into a car, there is a chance you may not step back out of it. That tragedy could have happened to anyone. That could have happened to me.
In my hometown, Johns Creek, there seems to be a bit of a heroin and drug epidemic, especially among young adults. There are people I went to high school with who are now dead after falling victim to these drugs. I am not a drug user, but I know that drugs are a common recreational activity among people in my age group, and I hope that my peers realize that that could happen to them. You are not immune to addiction. One bad batch of whatever you're snorting/injecting/smoking, and your life could be over. Our bodies are fragile, and your false sense of invincibility will not help you successfully avoid the consequences of these acts.
I've been to parties where people drink themselves to the point of hospitalization, and the scariest part is, it's not an unusual sight to see. Sometimes people even pride themselves in all their "close-calls." The number of dangerous activities they've gotten away with increases their popularity and edginess. This pattern has got to stop because, one day, you'll go just a little too far, and the outcome will be unspeakable.
In the end, please remember how fragile your life is. These awful outcomes are real, and they can most definitely happen to you. Keep this in mind as you go about your day, and make an effort to live your life carefully. Cutting corners, especially regarding safety, will almost always end in disaster. You are not the exception, so instead of thinking it won't happen to me, live cautiously to try to prevent those outcomes so that it does not happen to you.
