Drinking and Driving Course

I recently did a story on drinking and driving over at ACU. The week before Spring Break, ACU's Peer Health organization puts on a week long event called, "Making Good Choices." One of their events was an obstacle course that included duck tape and cones...that looked rather simple to complete. However, students had to wear a pair of goggles that blurred their vision; confusing their depth perception.
Watching the students sway from side-to-side and trip over cones and veer far from the duck tape, I thought that they were just goofing around. So that's when I decided to give it a try. And almost immediately after putting the glasses on, I felt disoriented. I couldn't even stand before the starting line without being directed to it. Then when they said, "Go" and I raced in my heels, I not only was way off of the tape but I stepped on cone after cone.
In the end, the "police" (students) wrote me a ticket for 6 violations in 6 seconds. Violations are given out for not stepping on the duck tape and for stepping on cones. My ticket frustrated me because without the goggles, it looked so easy. So, I gave it a second try to prove to myself that I could master this course. I went for a different strategy this time, thinking slow and steady could win the race. It didn't work out that well for me, I wound up with more violations in more time.
I think the drunk driving course serves as a good reminder of how not only alcohol effects your decision making, but even something that looks so simple and harmless is really not. I think it had a pretty good effect on students at ACU and hopefully they'll remember that while they're on Spring Break and throughout the year.