if I survive this week & speech

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

So there was my attempted-ski-pole-through-eye incident on Monday & eye docs Tuesday, so Wednesday was supposed to be a fun day: walking Humane Society dogs. So I went to the local chapter, in a brand-new building, and walked the 1st dog absolutely fine. The 2nd dog I took out went with me to a small field, where he found some trash paper that he started gnawing on. So I pulled him away, and when he'd been out and about for a while, on the way back in I stopped to get the paper to throw it away. LIFE LESSON KIDS: papers in fields might be hiding MASSIVE amounts of fire-ants. Luckily mom was still in the parking lot & heard my yells. Very luckily, she carries Benadryl in her purse. 2 days later, my arm is beginning to look normal again.

So this morning I did something I've been looking forward to for many months. We drove back up to where I grew up, Asheville, to go to my high school, Carolina Day School. There, I delivered this speech to the senior class:

"Hi guys & gals. You're probably either glad I'm taking up some class time or you're mad I'm taking up your free time. Either way, it'll be less than 20 minutes, so tough it out. Whoops, PLEASE tough it out.

1st off, let me say that I know my ability to speak clearly isn't fully back yet, so I'm going to try and slow down. I've come from a coma to bring this message to you and the brain injury that caused the coma is affecting my speech.

My name is Jeff Knox. I went to school here, from 6th grade in '91 to 12th grade in '97. For those of you doing the math, yes, I am that old. I had some of the same teachers, and Mama Gouge was ours as well. Well, I didn't go to school HERE... this building didn't exist way back in my prehistoric day. What is now your middle school is where I went to high school.

I'm here to talk to you about prom night specifically, but the lesson applies anytime. So the big dance of the year is coming up-- prom. Maybe you're gonna go, maybe you're not. The young adults who do go may want a little more partying before or afterward, or just decide the only way this can even BE fun is to not be totally sober while they're at the function. The young adults who don't go may decide a dance with a bottle of something is the best prom date anyone could ever have.

So I'm talking about alcohol. True, none of y'all are of legal age to buy it or drink it, but does that stop you? Did it stop us? I can only assume it didn't since I don't remember. I'm not here to be the policeman saying "Don't drink alcohol, o ye not of age." I'm also, for the record, not in any way encouraging it's use, and you can take that to the principal. I'm just going to make a wild and crazy assumption that someone here is going to consume alcohol. It may be prom night, it may be 30 years from now. I'm not here to say alcohol's bad and you will immediately die from consumption. I've done it. I'm also not saying it's good. It is what it is.

What I am here to say is that IF YOU DO drink even some alcohol, or even know of someone who does, alright, so you or them is on the way to being drunk. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you even consider letting someone who's had alcohol drive a car, be it you or somebody else. Even if the person only had a bare smidgen of alcohol, this applies. I'm willing to bet that a jail cell isn't as fun as being at prom night, or at home, or heck, as fun as spending the night at CDS.

Now let me tell you why I feel so strongly against drunk driving. In May of '07, I was out at a bar with one of my roommates and some poker buddies. Lo and behold, my roommate got drunk beyond belief. Now, the problem was, she had driven herself to the bar after work. So she rode back to our house that night in my car. I would not have driven if I'd had any alcoholic drinks.

Okay, I have no memory of what happened next, so I'll stick to the facts that I've learned since. We hadn't been home from the bar long at all when my roommate decided she wanted to go somewhere. It was about 1 in the morning. I was inside the house and next thing I know, I heard a pickup truck starting in the driveway-- her boyfriend had left his truck there. I knew for a fact that she was drunk, so I stepped out front to see what was going on. She had decided to go somewhere else-- probably another bar, but we'll never know. She was in the truck's driver's seat when I went to the side of the truck and I opened the door and tried to talk her out of drunk driving. I didn't notice that she had already shifted the gear into "reverse."

So as I was talking to her, her foot drunkenly slipped from it's resting place and slammed down onto the gas pedal. Since the truck was in reverse gear, the truck went flying backwards. Remember the part of this story where I said I stood beside the open car door talking her out of driving? The door knocked me down so hard onto the ground that the skull impact immediately started a 5-week coma where the doctors told my parents that I had a 90% chance of dying. The wreck caused a collapsed lung, multiple facial fractures, including a broken jaw, broken cheek, broken eye socket & damage to my right eye. That skull fracture caused a Traumatic Brain Injury. The Traumatic Brain Injury caused speech problems & double vision & memory problems so severe that I don't remember much from my 27 years before the wreck happened. Imagine going off to college, then living on your own for 10 YEARS-- you might like your parents but it would be so sweet to not live there-- and then going back to being dependent on your parents.

But I am here now, luck of all luck! Therapy's not over, and it's been almost 2 years! I have had countless numbers of speech, arm strength, and physical therapists, among others. I had to re-learn how to walk. I didn't know how old I was-- I thought I was over 100. I didn't even know who my parents were. I've forgotten most things I learned in college-- and I studied computer science in school and had a job as a computer programmer, and how much of that do you think I remember? VERY LITTLE. Even basic math, like division, that I learned here, I had to re-learn. I haven't gotten my driver's license back yet. This is the first time in my life I've worn glasses.

So now you know why I want you to think about this. If you drive drunk, you're risking jail-time and worse. How much worse? My freshman college roommate Greg was only my roommate for about 3 months. Then he was driving around town with some friends when a drunk driver hit their car head-on. Greg's body broke through a seat-belt and he slammed his forehead into the windshield. He went immediately into a coma that lasted for months. I visited his house in 2008. Well, his parents' house-- he is not able to live alone. And he requires a personal assistant. His personal assistant has to help Greg use the bathroom. And this has been going on now for 10 years.

So what's the moral of this story? It is not to never have alcohol. When you're of age, have some responsibly if you wish, and I do emphasize RESPONSIBLY. All I need for you to take from this is that you'll NEVER combine alcohol and driving. My only motive in talking to you now is that I don't want what happened to Greg & I to happen to anyone else-- and I am just lucky to even be able to give this talk, many aren't. I am available for questions from y'all now but for private questions, I'll be around for a short while, and some teachers will know my email address, just ask around. There is no such thing as a bad question. Thank you for your time."

It went smoothly (whew) and was well received. So we'll never know, but let's just hope they were listening.