The following story is something very personal that has changed my life completely (in a positive way) & I’d like to share with everyone. I wanna show people that we all make mistakes but it’s what we do after that proves who we are. This will be broken up into four parts: THE MISTAKE, 17.5HRS IN JAIL, THE CONSEQUENCES & THE NEW ME.
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According to them it was Monday, March 30, 2009 @ 2:15am when it happened. I still remember the flashing lights and the sound of the sirens. As soon as I saw them I said to myself “OH FUCK THIS IS IT, I AM GOING TO JAIL”. I took everything out of my pockets (wallet, cell phone, keys) and threw them in my dash compartment. The officer came to the window asked me for license & registration. I obeyed, he then asked me if I realized that I had run a red light, I told him I didn’t know (to this day I have no idea if I did or didn’t). He then asked me to step out of the vehicle. I stepped out of the vehicle and nearly fell to the floor; I had to use the car to stand up straight. He then told me I was being arrested for “SUSPESION OF DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED”.
You are probably wondering how I got here; I’m going to make this as short as possible. It was a Sunday I had played 2 softball games that morning came home took a nap. I woke up around 5pm to a few texts and missed calls. My friends wanted me to go out to the bar with them (after all they knew I loved going out Sundays because they are my Saturdays). I really didn’t want to go out at all (always follow your 1st impulse), I was too tired but they text & text. I rolled out of bed got dressed and made my way to the bar. We were having a great time and my favorite drink was $1 (Vodka Seven). Im not going to lie it must have been around 9pm that I had already blacked out. I don’t recall anything between then & the time of my arrest. Back to the arrest…
I was cuffed put in the back of the car and taken to the Chevron across the street. This is where he let me know that he was going to do 3 field sobriety tests on me. I wasn’t going to do them, but the only reason I did was because the front of the car was not facing me so I knew it wasn’t going to be recorded.
- 1st he asked me to follow the pen… I couldn’t follow it for shit.
- 2nd he asked me to lift one leg and balance for more than 30 seconds… the whole time I was thinking “okay Jaime you took 13 years of ballet this is where it’s going to pay off” NOPE that was a complete failure.
- 3rd he asked me to walk in a straight line… I thought “okay I got this, shoulders back, head up, tummy tight now go” YUP complete failure too.
After all that he asked me to go ahead and blow in a breathalyzer so he can record my BAC (blood alcohol concentration). I firmly told him no, he told me I had too; I let him know that I wasn’t. He then proceeded to let me know I was gonna be taken to Houston city jail for ““SUSPESION OF DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED”. I was cuffed again and placed in the car. The whole time I was back there, I had a million thoughts running through my head. These are just a few:
“OMG what are they going to do with Tyler?”
“Wow this is what the back of a cop car looks like from the inside.”
“Hmmm these bars are really made of metal”
“Damn I have small feet & can’t set my feet straight back here, how do people with big feet do it?”
“Wow I’m actually going to jail; I wonder what my parents are going to say when they find out?”
“Why am I not crying, I cry for everything?”
“Now I know I have lived a little, I am going to jail for the 1st time ever.”
“Fuck I’m gonna miss the Britney Spears concert tomorrow.”
We finally made it to our destination. The cop took me out of the vehicle and at this point I was wide awake (HELL I was wide awake the moment I saw the sirens pulling me over). I looked ahead and I wasn’t alone. There had to have been at least 15 cops in line waiting to drop off someone they had arrested. We waited & waited & waited finally it was our turn to walk through the door. The next 17.5 hours were something I’ll never forget. I will continue that on my next post “17.5HRS IN JAIL”.
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This is by far the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life and believe me I have learned my lesson. Oh & yes I am calling this a mistake. I know Drinking & Driving is a serious issue in our country and around the world. I know I could have hurt myself or more importantly someone else. I also know that some people HATE people like me for doing what I did. I however am a firm believer of the following quote “He who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones”. I also believe that we are ALL human and we ALL make mistakes. This is only the beginning of the mistake that I had to deal with for 19 months.
I think it’s great that you’re writing about this (someone – or many people – will learn from your experience). It’s even more awesome that you have grown from the experience. Look at the incredible direction your life is headed!
So, on a lighter note… Did you miss the Britney Spears concert?
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If even one person learns from my mistake I would feel it was all worth it to share my story.
Oh & NO I didn’t make it to see Britney~ I got out of jail around 7:30pm & the concert was at 8pm. PLUS she was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted a shower.
Thanks for sharing this – we all make silly mistakes, especially when we’re younger. I know I made heaps in my late teens/early twenties!
Hopefully we can learn from these mistakes, grow stronger and move on. Heading RTW for an extended period shows that you certainly have! 🙂
PS. Cops sure do like to cuff people in the US, don’t they? You have to commit a major crime or be a threat to the police to get handcuffed in Australia.
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I love the quote “We live & we learn” thats the way we should see things.
Oh & yes here the if you are under arrest they will cuff you no matter how lil or big the crime is. Thats interesting to know about Aus.
It really takes guts to write about this, and I admire you for it. You’re always going to run into people who will judge you for driving drunk, but you’ve owned up to it and paid the price, and you’ve learned from it. You know you’re not a bad person because you were (are…haha) young and made a stupid decision. I’m so glad you got something good out of this situation, and I’m looking forward to reading the next 3 posts.
I like that you told us what was going through your head when you were in the back of the cop car, really made me feel like I was there. It also made me laugh a little because of some of the silly things you were thinking, but I think we all do that in stressful situations sometimes. I imagine for you at the time, it probably helped you to not freak out completely by thinking about things like how cramped your feet were, sort of removes you from the situation for a moment.
I’m with Tandem World, I’d like to know if you made it to the Britney concert 🙂 My guess is no.
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Oh yes I am owning up to and am not ashamed to share it with others. I have most def paid the price & have learned from it. Thanks for implying I am still young ja ja, I had just turned 23 when it happened after all & am now 24.
Oh & girl I honestly had like a million random thoughts running through my head. For some reason none were about the trouble I was getting into. About the Britney concert read the reply for Tandem, you guessed right.
Hey Jaime, I really admire your courage to put yourself out there and admit and own up to your mistake. You can’t change the past, all you can do is learn and grow from it.
If I had a dollar for every mistake I made, well… let’s just say I would be a rich man 🙂
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If we had a dollar for every mistake we have made we would ALL backpacking the world w/o having to worry about $$$…lol!
We all make mistakes and it takes a lot of courage to not only own up to it, but write about it publicly. Kudos to you for that.
I’m so proud of you for changing your life around after your mistake. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and it happened so that you could live the life your going to live now. Had it not, I think you would have continued down that path.
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We believe the same, what you said about everything happening for a reason is something I believe in big time (its even in my about me page). Oh & you are right had it not happened, I would have still been on that path!
Since I already know this story and we’ve talked about it before, all I’m going to say is, LMFAO @ your thoughts while sitting in the back of a damn cop car!!! HAhahahahaha. B-Spears? Small feet? LMAO. Jaime, you’re hilarious. A human being is exactly NOTHING without the experiences that define them. A human has no soul, no life, no purpose, and no drive without these “experiences”. This too was an experience, and at that it was one that has changed the tracks on your railroad to happiness.
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Those were really my thoughts for some reason the last thing on my mind was what I had been arrested for. I knew I had screwed up and just didn’t want to think about it.
Wow Jorge I really love the last part of your comment. I will be using that as a quote & in a post soon.
i normaly drink like a fish and curse like a sailor, and i do it often. but after i had an accident when i was drunk, its not something i want anyone else to go through. my advice is drink as much as you want but dont drive back home
I agree 100%!!! I will be drinking again but will not drink & drive!!!
This is quite ballsy to put yourself out there like this, and I am quite curious to see where it goes. Kudos to you for owning up to your mistakes. We have ALL done really stupid stuff, and I know I am VERY lucky to have escaped my 20’s without anything serious happening because of all my stupidity. We all learn lessons in different ways, and sometimes it takes something like this to bash us over the head to make us change. Thanks for sharing.
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I had been wanting to write about it for a while just wanted to wait for everything to get dismissed and over with. I want to share it so people can learn from my mistake.
And yes you are right sometimes it takes a mistake like this to wake us up and make us change.
Jail= not fun…I speak from experience also. Unlike you, I was crying like a freaking baby, mainly because I’m too pretty for jail.
Uh uh NO SIR!!! Did you really cry??? LMAO i remember you telling your story at Jorges B-Day dinner!!! And um dont play we both are to pretty for jail…lol!!!
I agree, everyone makes mistakes. I can’t see why anybody would hate you for this, especially since you have learned your lesson. Thankfully nobody was hurt. Except your pocketbook, I’m sure!
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Oh Christy hurt my pocket book is an understatement. Ill put some $$$ figures on my consequences post. Ill tell ya now was NOT CHEAP.
Well me and you have talked about this before! And I love you for being so strong in a situation that most people would of fallen apart in. I am glad that you did your time and you didn’t once break your probation period. NOT many people can do that. And God puts things in our path for good reasons. I think it made you a better person for it, meaning that now you appreciate life a little bit more. I am so glad you posted this and let it all out! You are a strong person Jaime and I love you soooo much for it!
Oh girl I fell apart at 1st, I stayed strong and followed the rules but man was I depressed at 1st but you are right never broke my probation terms. This whole ordeal made such a better and different person I am thankful for it. I love you too~
I know it’s already been said a few times in the comments already, but I have to add my voice to the ones saying it’s very brave of you to say this publicly. I truly believe that even the best people make mistakes, learning from them is what shapes us and makes us (hopefully) better people that can make the right decision the next time in that situation.
It sounds like you have learned a lot from this ordeal, I can’t wait to read the rest. Thanks for sharing this with us.
(Oh, and I had to giggle about the Britney Spears concert and squished feet… silly things like that also run through my head when I’m trying to get through something difficult.)
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Thanks & yes its weird the things that run through our head when we are in a difficult situation. I think when we know its out of our control we just let things be and go off in LALA land.
I always thought we had talked about everything but I learned a few things from that night today. This experience has helped me realize the importance of not drinking and driving. You’re better than me because I don’t know if I could have survived the hand cuffs and much less jail.
I’m glad we did get to see Britney in September together! I look forward to reading the rest of journey.
xoxo
QueenB
Yeah some things I just never shared. I am about to cry, I couldn’t have made it through the 19 months with out you. Words will never be able to describe how thankful I am to have you in my life and to have through this whole ordeal with me. Well not with me but putting up with me and this ordeal for so long. Ahh the endless conversations we had & my endless worries. I know you told me it was all going to work out and it did.
Oh & hell yeah a few months later we saw miss Britney…lol!!!
xoxo
Pinky
It takes a very strong person to share something as deeply personal as this, as I’m sure you are well aware. It’s admirable and humbling that you can do that.
From a technical perspective, it adds huge personality, credibility and humility to your blog – something that many blogs lack. You’re next question should be, how do I continue that approach (w/o the drinking naturally).
Thanks Ben, I didnt even look at it that way. I just wanted to share my story but that is true. I mean no matter what I will always be me when I post a post. Trust when I am traveling wild stories will be posted too…lol!!!
Oh & I can drink now so I can do it with drinking responsibly!!!
OMG. dying to know your next move.
SCARY!
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Thanks I will be posting part 3 & 4 soon!!!
Well at least you can tick off one of the 101 things to do before you die 🙂 “Get arrested”
You are very brave for posting this. I was expecting there might be a backlash in the comments section but everyone has been so kind and supportive. It takes a lot of guts to post something as honest like this on the big bad scary internet.
It seems you have learned from your mistake. I guess it is difficult in the US where there isn’t great public transport… but next time take a taxi dude! I sometimes get black outs when I drink too… maybe it is a good idea to give your keys to someone sober so that you can’t drive even if you want to after a numble of drinks (my families word for when you have drunk so many drinks you can’t remember how many) you won’t be able to.
Jaja yes i have crossed going to jail off my list of things to do before I die. Oh & yes I would have to agree with you about public transportation well at least here in Houston but I still cant use that as an excuse to drink & drive.
Wow really commend you for putting yourself out there with this one. It’s not easy to admit our mistakes but to share it in such a public forum is really admirable Jaime.
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Thanks, Ayngelina! I can only hope someone will learn from my experience.
This is probably the best article I read today 🙂
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