When Janice was in high school, she had acquired a reputation as an individual who hit the books real hard and who rarely, if ever, partied with her classmates. She seemed almost obsessed about “shining” academically so that she would be able to go after a career that she not only enjoyed but one that also gave her a degree of financial stability.
After much deliberation, eventually she made up her mind that she wanted to be a lawyer. In order to reach this goal, nonetheless, she would first have to complete four years of undergraduate education.
After Finishing High School Janice Gets Accepted Into A Highly Rated Undergraduate University as Training For a Career as a Lawyer
After Janice completed high school, she applied to and was accepted into a prestigious program in religion. Her analysis of her options regarding this decision was based on the fact that this subject would be a good springboard for law school and wouldn’t be indistinguishable from the preponderance of law school applicants who select political science as their undergraduate major.
After graduating with a 3.65 GPA at the undergraduate level, she applied to and was accepted at a highly regarded law school at one of the Big Ten universities.
She was enthusiastic about her legal studies but on rare occasions she was snowed under from all the work that had to be done at law school. Akin to the way in which she handled herself in her high school and undergraduate days, however, she made buddies quite easily but scarcely participated in social activities until the semester was finished.
After Feeling Proud of the Fact That She Had Done Extremely Well on Her Tests, Janice Wanted to Let Her Hair Down and Do Something Besides Studying For a Change
Janice was the type of person who worked meticulously to finish what she started and then would take a couple of days off when she could. As is the case, however, nearly all of the things she did between school sessions or during her summer vacations did not have anything to do with drinking. Evidently, Janice was anything but a party-girl. Now that her final exams for her second year in law school were over and appreciating the fact that she had done very well on her exams, nonetheless, she felt like celebrating.
Drinking at a Local Saloon Leads to Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms, Calling 911, and An Ambulance Ride to An Alcohol Treatment Center
So Janice and a few of her pals went to a local tavern where they had a few shots. As the hours quickly passed, Janice continued to drink without having a care in the world about tests or term papers the following day. In actual fact, Janice mentioned to her friends how overjoyed she was to whoop it up and drink with classmates from her apartment.
As the evening progressed, Janice and her pals continued to drink. In fact, she was having such a fabulous time that she didn’t want the night to end. It was almost as if she was making up for lost time and attempting to stuff a year’s worth of fun and laughter into a single evening. Such a “game plan,” it needs to be emphasized, hardly ever works. In fact, when Janice went to the powder room and vomited, her pals started to get concerned about her health.
A few minutes later when Janice started to slur her speech, talk in a confused manner, and then fall unconscious, however, her pals immediately realized that they needed to call 911 and ask for medical assistance because they suspected that Janice was exhibiting alcohol poisoning symptoms.
Once Janice was in the rehab hospital, the presiding emergency room doctor verified what her classmates had speculated, namely, that Janice consumed far more alcohol than her body could handle and, as a consequence, she experienced an alcohol overdose.
After the emergency room treatment team pumped her stomach until no gastric contents were evident, Janice was transferred to the recovery room. After staying around three hours in recovery, Janice was then moved to one of the regular hospital rooms. Fortunately, the most critical part of her hospitalization was over and all of her vital signs returned to normal.
In response to Janice’s state of affairs, her friends caringly phoned her parents. Consequently, early the next day, her parents and her best friends went to the hospital to visit Janice and check on her medical progress.
Janice Comes Close to Losing Her Life, is Pleased to be Alive, and Promises to Never Again Drink in an Irresponsible and Abusive Manner
Janice was very aware that she came close to losing her life and, consequently, was grateful to be alive. At the same time, nonetheless, she was somewhat depressed knowing that she had almost died the night before. Her Mom and Dad knew how intensely she studied in graduate school and how little she let herself experience a social life. Nevertheless, they also knew that Janice needed to avoid excessive drinking.
Consequently, they suggested that down the road, whenever a drinking circumstance develops, that she always drink in moderation and responsibly. Janice was in agreement with this and assured her Mother and Father and her friends that she would never again drink in an irresponsible manner. In Janice’s own words, “I never had an inkling that I would become one of the alcohol abuse and alcoholism statistics in the local university newspaper. I now know that abusive and hazardous drinking is not for me. I pledge that this will never happen again.”
Fortunately, Janice was not only “book smart” but she also had a lot of common sense. Stated more explicitly, she quickly knew that she had made an error and made up her mind that she would never make the same error in judgment again. In actual fact, she now realized that she had involved herself in “binge drinking” and that even one instance of this form of abusive drinking can end in a fatality.