Random things Darcy has (temporarily?) cut out of her life...

H'okay, so. I gave up pop and aaaaall candy except chocolate for Lent.  I do miss the soda, man. I know it's not good for me... whatever.


Tomorrow I'll have no meat.... Catholics on Fridays in Lent, ya know.


And texting while driving is out. I know, I'm a terrible person. But I'm trying reeeeally hard to cut down on the distractions while driving.  I'm so bad! I do so many stupid things that really can wait. Eating, putting on makeup, talking on the phone, looking at the phone, looking for random things... It all has to stop.


In our school the last couple days, our community put on this major program thingy called Every Fifteen Minutes.  (http://www.every15minutes.com/) On average, every fifteen minutes someone dies in an alcohol related accident.  Scary.  They brought this guy into the school, dressed up as the Grim Reaper.  Every fifteen minutes, over the loudspeaker came the sound of a beating heart, an attempt at keeping it alive, and then a flatline.  Yikes.  The sound was haunting.  Every time the sound went off, the Grim Reaper went into a classroom and collected a student, who was removed temporarily.  Their faces were painted to look like they were dead, and they were not allowed to talk to anyone for the rest of the day.  Sometime after lunch, the principal came over the loudspeaker telling us all to go down by the football field where a bad accident had taken place.  (It was fake, so you aren't worried.)  Two cars, both banged up.  The driver was under the influence and relatively unharmed.  The people in the other vehicle weren't so lucky - Jake died at the scene, Jordan was lifeflighted (?) out on a helicopter, and Josh was pried out of the car using the Jaws of Life.


They took us all into the auditorium, where we saw them (pretending to) resuscitate Josh. His condition went from bad to worse, and his parents had to come in and say goodbye.  Tragic. =(


The next day they held Josh's 'funeral' in the high school auditorium.  Mr. Fog sang the On Eagle's Wings song, whatever it's called.  Our vocal boys sang the Irish Blessing. I cried. A lot. Josh was very obviously still alive since the whole thing was an act, but it felt so real... and it sucked.


The counselors talked to us about all the activities they did with the "Living Dead" and how they had written letters to their parents as if they had died, saying "I died today, and I never got the chance to tell you..." It was all very emotional. I pretty much freaked out the whole day, no big deal.  A lot of the living dead shared their own personal stories, experiences they've had with tragic accidents like the mock accident we had witnessed.... It's heartbreaking. I'm serious.


SO. I don't even remember where I wanted this blog to go, but I've been word-vomiting telling everyone about this event... so it's no surprise that I went off on a tangent in a blog about it.  It really opened my eyes.  They kept on saying things like, 'the choices you make now have consequences that last a lifetime...' blah blah blah. Things like that. Scary things like that.


It just made me see how important it is to live in the moment, not get caught up in the little stuff.  Always let the people you care about know how you feel.  Don't assume that they know because if something ever happened... what would you want to say to them?  Oops. But you're out of time.


It's just... really upsetting. So I've been freaking out, running around, telling all the people in the school I like at all not to die, and that I love them. There have been lots of Darcy hugs to go around, let me tell you.


I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm sorry. It's been an emotional few days, you know.  If anyone wants to talk about this, hit me up. I obviously have a lot to say. Ask me for my phone number, or get ahold of me on Facebook.


What do you guys think? Any of you that go to my school... how were you impacted?


I love you, and don't die. <3