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The Ride

The Drive
Ryan Arnoldussen

People have traumatic experiences all the time. I did not go through public rejection like Bob Greene but I did have a traumatic experience when I was 16. My traumatic experience happened when I was a freshman in High School. The drive was not only traumatic but changed my life forever. I have never written about this before.
The Drive There
It all started the morning of April 11, 1990. My friends Ursula, Brandon, Mike and I decided to skip school and drive to the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The reservoir was a great spot for kids who wanted to get out of town. My friends and I go up their about once a week to swim and go fishing. My friends and I stopped at the local store to get beer and fishing supplies. We asked every person to buy us beer. After nine people told us no, the tenth person finally said yes. We were all excited because all of us were under the age of 21 and could not buy beer or any alcohol. After getting the beer from this guy, we all got into the car and proceeded to drive to the reservoir. The man who bought us beer was slim and never even crossed his mind what could happen if he bought us beer. On the way to the reservoir, we drank and listened to music. The drive was easy and all of us took turns driving. There were close calls but nothing happened. I remember seeing our car going across the double yellow lines and driving on the shoulder. We were fortunate not to have anything happen on the way to the reservoir. We finally arrived at the reservoir and little buzzed but made it there safe and sound.
The Drive Back
After spending five hours at the lake, we decided to call it a day and drive back home. All of us were tired from swimming and partying all day. All of us piled into the car laughing and making jokes at each other. For some reason I decided to sit on the right side of the car behind the passenger seat. The first thing I did was put my...

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