Four Ball State students have died since November. Michael McKinney, 21, was shot to death; Amanda Jo Miller, 20, was hit by a drunk driver; Karl Harford, 20, was also shot to death; and Kyle Trosky, 20, was killed in a car accident.
Were our classmate's deaths just a string of bad luck?
In a "Daily News" article Monday, Trosky's friend Adam Knott was quoted as saying, "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Knott is right. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time - all four were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Knott's simple answer made me think even more.
Maybe we have more control over our destiny than we think. Maybe life and death are more complicated than the saying goes: "When it's my time, it's my time." Maybe we should think about where the choices we make will leave us in the end. We're not bulletproof just because we're young. And we are not automatically protected with a shield of invincibility just because we are college students. Maybe we can prevent some of the situations we find ourselves tangled up in.
I feel lucky to be alive lately when I think about the choices I've made over the past four years at Ball State. Partying with people I don't know, walking home after a night of drinking by myself late at night, getting into a car with someone I know had too much too drink. I may just be overreacting because these deaths all happened so fast, but I may not be considering the following.
The National Institute of Health named the leading causes of death in the United States in 2000. Here are some of the most common: Alcohol consumption (85,000 deaths), motor vehicle accidents (43,000 deaths), firearms (29,000 deaths), sexual behavior (20,000 deaths) and illicit use of drugs (17,000 deaths).
In some respects these most-common deaths are preventable.
Alcohol - we chose whether or not to drink too much. Motor vehicle accidents; - we have the choice whether or not to wear our seatbelts. Sexual behavior - we can chose to use protection or abstain from sex altogether. Drugs - we can chose not to use them or associate with those who do.
Are taking risks really worth possibly jeopardizing our futures?
Trosky was involved in a car accident that wasn't his fault. Harford was trying to do a nice thing and give some guys a ride home. And many of us don't know what to think about a BSU police officer shooting one of our fellow students. But maybe there's another side, one we would probably rather not consider.
What if Trosky made the choice to wear his seat belt? What if McKinney made the choice to not get so drunk that night? What if Harford wouldn't have given a ride to people he didn't know? Would their situations be different right now?
We'll never know. I don't blame any of these students for their actions, because I've done many of the same things over the years. For some reason I got lucky I guess.
Call it fate, call it miraculous intervention, call it what you want. All I know is luck isn't enough for me anymore. Not after the reality of these fateful tragedies.
I can't walk around scared all the time and I won't keep looking over my shoulder - and God forbid I stop going to the bars - but I will think twice about the choices I make and the situations I put myself in from now on.
I'm not gambling with my life anymore.
Write to Meghan at mefarr@bsu.edu
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