Scars are always there. They may fade a little but they never go away. Every day when I look at my dad I see the scar right above his lip and below his nose. He got that scar because he got in a four-wheeling accident and he crashed because he was intoxicated. This incident happened when I was six. Even at that young age, it affected me so much. I’m going to write about my mentality beforehand, my mindset during my dad’s recovery, and my afterthoughts on the whole situation.

Before my dad's crash, I didn’t think much about drunk driving. Mainly because I didn’t exactly know what it was and what it meant. I had been around drunk people a lot, but I didn’t really know what would happen if they were to drive while drunk. My dad wasn’t an alcoholic but when he got drunk he went really hard. My grandpa and grandma were young for being grandparents and would have parties at their house and people would drink, party, and act crazy. Then one morning when I woke up I saw my dad puking behind my grandma’s garden. So I knew my dad was a heavy drinker but I didn’t think anything bad would have ever come out of it but I was wrong.

I can’t remember every detail from it because I was really young but I do remember how scared my sister and I were. My mom told us what happened but I couldn’t fully wrap my head around it. My mom slowly walking us into the house and what I saw terrified me. My dad's face was all scratched up and he couldn’t talk or move much. I just stood there petrified. It probably looked worse to me because everything seems scarier when you’re little, but I just knew it was bad.

At first, I didn’t really comprehend what had just happened but seeing all that at such a young age made me realize the damage that could be done by drinking and driving.

When you’re drunk driving it’s like firing a gun at a moving train and hoping you won’t hit any of the passengers. There are so many people who die every day from a drunk driver. They may not even be the one who was the alcohol-impaired driver and they lost their life. I know that my dad has a different outlook on it now than before the crash and I hope people really think more about how they could hurt themselves or others if they drive that car while drunk. I was so young and if my father were to actually die my life would be totally different. My whole world would have changed and not for the better.

I wouldn't have my little sister and brother. I can’t even imagine life without them and it hurts to think about them not being here. I was just a child when this happened so I couldn't grasp the fact of drinking and driving but that accident made me learn and have a whole other perspective. Honestly, without it, my dad might have driven drunk more and might have done other ignorant things too and I could have grown up thinking the inappropriate behavior of intoxicated driving wasn’t even that bad. I learned a very important life lesson from this though. It taught me from a very young age to never ever drive while intoxicated because you could hurt or kill yourself and maybe others too.