I was teenage alcoholic. I regularly did things on a Friday night that I had no recollection of on a Saturday morning. Someone usually had to tell me what I had done. Sometimes, I had to wait for weeks, even months, before knowing the full consequences of my drunken binges.
For so many underage drinkers, what starts out as fun and social turns into shame, or worse, tragedy.
In May of 2010, I blogged about Yeardley Love, a beautiful lacrosse player at the University of Virginia, whose life ended after a beating in her college apartment. The last person to see her was her college boyfriend, who is now—this very week—on trial for allegedly killing her.
They were a darling, privileged couple; college seniors on very prestigious athletic teams at their esteemed university, the University of Virginia.
But there were signs of trouble—red flags—that so many people saw but didn’t report, such as public displays of physical or verbal abuse and excessive bouts of drinking.
Today’s young men and women and their families need to talk about this story--how they would react if they had been friends with this couple, or parents who had known this couple, or coaches who coached this couple, or teammates who watched this tragedy unfold. If someone had spoken up and intervened, rather than remained silent, Yeardley Love might be still be alive.
It's too late for Yeardley Love, who died that night, or for George Hugley, who has been waiting for trial since 2010. Their lives have changed forever by unrequited love, liquor abuse, and lies that kept everyone believing nothing bad would happen. But it did.
Don’t be naive. Whether you are a student, parent, coach, or administrator, you must take time to understand the campus culture in America today. (For immediate insights and links to informative websites, read my Little Changes Big Results® blog, “They’re Not Waving, They’re Drowning,” that compiled FIVE similar stories and their tragic outcomes.)
Adults MUST stop looking the other way. We need to speak truth into the lives of young men and women--whether they are our own children or someone else's kids. We need to “call them out” for bullying, binge drinking, sexual assault and abuse. You and I—adults who care about this young generation—must talk to our kids and their friends about (1) the difference between love and sex, (2) the power of alcohol to ruin a life, and (3) the way that lies can distort reality and create a web of destruction.
Start today, with one little change that could have a life-changing big results: please forward this blog to your friends with tweens, teens, and twenties.
Be encouraged,
Becky
