Some weeks I write about light subjects, but before you read, I need to give a warning. This article is because of something that happened to me in the summer of 2012. This is going to be dedicated to being aware of being spiked. Not everyone is honest in social situations and back in the summer of 2012, I had to learn one of the most painful lessons when I was nineteen years old. For me, I was lucky, despite the fact that I sometimes cry over it still, but some people aren’t

When I was nineteen, I was very naïve and thought that everyone was always going to be good and no harm to this extent could happen to me. I went to a school that is now closed down, and I was also living in Common Wealth Ave in Brookline. I was hanging out with a couple of friends that were good guys, and they knew these two shifty men that lied saying they were from Kazakhstan. They showed pictures that looked like they were from Google to me. I was dumb and went up with my friends and we sat at a table in their apartment. I openly said I didn’t want vodka, and I was going to give it to my friend, and he was going to drink it, but the two men kept insisting that it was for me and wouldn’t let my friend take the drink. They kept saying, “it’s for you” after they huddled together with the glass that I took after trying to refuse. I wish I knew how to say no and realized the evidence was in front of me the whole time that they had ill intentions.

From what I remember, it only took about five minutes to kick in. I felt an instant dizziness and I don’t remember much from when I first felt it. Honestly, all I remember is struggling and telling them I had to leave when I had tunnel vision. Everything was shaking like the Blare Witch Project filming. The guy tried following me on the elevator and I kept telling him to not come. When the elevator opened, I remember having to crawl to my dorm apartment, and I could barely open the door. I crawled to my trash and got sick, then I crawled to my bed, but I was too weak and was on my old fuzzy rug trying to text a person I thought would be there for me, but nobody came to help me. Instead, I was left too weak and dizzy. The last thing I remember is shivering and using my last ounce of strength to pull a blanket off my bed. The next day I read the messages I got from the person I needed help from, and this person thought I was a drunken fool, but I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen to me. All I knew was that I wanted to survive.

Luckily I was lucky in comparison to people I’ve encountered and talked to about it. According to live science, 1 in 13 college students in this country are spiked. This is still a lot of people. Many people are not lucky and don’t get away. This is an experience that sticks with you for life, and I think there needs to be more of an awareness. Luckily many people have made strides to help bring awareness when out, like the straws that change color when a drink is spiked. With saying that, there are things we should be aware of when we go out.

When going out, I want people to observe how somebody is making a drink. If you feel something weird, only accept a drink you open yourself. If more than one person is around your drink too, that’s definitely shifty. That’s something I wish I paid attention to when I was younger. Making a drink yourself definitely helps if it’s a big event too, but the biggest thing is to NEVER put your drink down. I know it sounds cliché and it’s something you’ve heard since you were a child, but if you put it down, dump it because your life is more important. It’s always better to be safe than sorry in a place you don’t know well enough. My final form of advice for this article is to say no. Say no and leave if you don’t feel good. For me, not saying no and not leaving is my biggest regret. It’s my biggest regret because that was probably the scariest night of my life, and it was also the night that I started to realize how cruel the world could be at times. My naïve bubble that I lived in popped and my heart felt shattered. Even though I was lucky in comparison, I still just wanted to share my story for my article this week because it could help somebody, or maybe save somebody from being spiked. This thing shouldn’t happen to anyone because it can lead to so much worse, so be safe, listen to my other forms of advice, and always express how you feel to your friends if you’re out.