The death of Kingston Ralph Ko Cheng is every parent’s nightmare.
Every time our children go for a night out — it always seems like our hearts live outside our bodies because we can hear them thumping with great anxiety as we pray unceasingly that they return home safely.
When I was young, I went out, too. And my parents also worried for me. But times were different, then. Alcohol and drugs were present but partaking wasn’t exactly socially acceptable.
Unlike today where it is commonplace, routine for many and tragically normalized.
I drank, too. Not a lot, though. But I was intoxicated once. I had to part ways with alcohol due to irreconcilable differences. Since I’ve largely been teetotal for most of my life, you could say I don’t have a deep understanding about the joy of drinking.
But I once grilled a friend what he loved about drinking. He said it was the fearlessness that alcohol gave him. It made him say things he otherwise wouldn’t have the courage to say when sober.
His reply failed to convince me of the merits of drinking as I didn’t really need alcohol to speak my mind.
He later developed liver cancer and sadly
passed away.
Notwithstanding, I don’t think there is anything wrong with drinking so long as you don’t drink yourself to impairment, dependence or addiction. In order to drink safely, however, you need to be self-aware.
Our bodies are built dissimilarly, our brains wired differently. Some people can stop at one drink. Others only when they’re wasted. Some people are genetically predisposed to addictive behaviors. And this is why some people become addicted to alcohol and other substances.
While we can’t change some things: genetic predispositions, past traumas and life experiences, we can choose to develop self-awareness so we can become better versions of our flawed selves.
The choice to take the first drink is yours. But know that after a few more drinks, you will no longer have a choice. The alcohol will own you.
So, don’t start something you know, sooner or later, you won’t have the strength to stop. If you’ve already started, stop now while you can. Know what you can and can’t do. Only then can you walk away from danger and harm.
Everyone makes mistakes but some mistakes have permanent consequences. A life taken is a life lost forever.
Cebu is up in arms about Kingston’s death and rightly so. Drunk driving has now sparked a conversation at every group chat and gathering.
Yes. Let’s call for better infrastructure for road safety and relevant legislation to curb excessive alcohol consumption that endangers public safety. But, let’s do more.
On a ride-hailing app in China, there’s a feature called dàijià. It literally means “designated driver.” You can call this service if you’ve been drinking.
The professional driver arrives on a foldable e-bike which he conveniently stows in the trunk of your car. He drives you home and parks your car then goes home on his e-bike.
It’s completely free, courtesy of the car insurance company. But you can also avail of it for a fee similarly priced with that of a taxi service.
Maybe, we can’t have foldable e-bikes. Maybe, we can’t offer it for free. But maybe, we can launch a similar type of service. Imagine how many people we could employ, how many lives we could save, how many sleepless nights we could spare so many people.
The pain is palpable, the rage justified, the grief understandable. But Sean Andrew Pajarillo’s inebriation which resulted in homicide is also every parent’s nightmare.
We can do more. Let me tell you next week.