The Fourth of July is supposed to be a holiday that everyone comes together to celebrate the birth of our nation and feel comfortable in doing so. It’s supposed to be a time to have fun and be thankful for our freedom. But for me, it is now the opposite.
This past summer I traveled with three of my best friends to Charleston, South Carolina to celebrate Independence Day. Who would turn down a trip to catch some sun and hang out on King Street for a holiday weekend? We started off the day by going to the beach and relaxing, played some beach volleyball, and swam in the ocean. We met so many new people and a few invited us to go out with them that night. So we geared up and got ready to head downtown.
I should have started this off by saying I am a very trusting person and I absolutely love meeting new people, especially when I am drinking and in an environment where I do not know many people. I am the kind of person that doesn’t think twice before taking a drink from a stranger, but this is where I made a huge mistake.
The girls and I started off our night on King Street and I volunteered to be the designated driver because I am the youngest. I thought that I could just have one or two drinks when we arrived since we would be staying until much later. Because there are so many places to go in Charleston, we decided to hop around and try as many as possible. At the second destination, Republic Garden and Lounge, I decided to have one drink. I met this, what seemed like, awesome and sweet guy who was from around my hometown and he offered to buy me a drink. Of course I did not object. I had been taking drinks from people I didn’t know for a years so why would this time be any different?
I was not looking to get belligerent, so I took my time in drinking my usual cranberry vodka. I started feeling strange when I was 2/3 of the way finished with the drink. My world started spinning and I just wanted to sit down and immediately I knew I needed to find my friends because something was wrong. The last thing I remember was asking for another drink in order to get this guy away so I could make the great escape to find my friends.
That was last thing I remembered from that night.
The next morning, I woke up not knowing how I got back to the hotel or how I was in pajamas or anything. I started freaking out. Did that guy find me before I found my friends? Did he try anything? Was I really drugged at a place I felt so comfortable? I had no answers and a terrible headache. When the girls woke up they filled me in.
Apparently, I had wandered off from King Street and made my way to the College of Charleston campus where I found a very comfortable bench. Luckily, we thought it would be a good idea to share our locations with each other in the event that we needed to find someone. I sat there for almost an hour before my friends found me. They told me that I was just sitting there. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t speak. This is when they realized I had been drugged.
We have all seen the movie “The Hangover,” so everyone should be familiar with the term “roofalin,” which is slang for the drug Rohypnol. Although alcohol is the leading culprit behind many rape and sexual assault cases per year, people still use other methods to speed up the process like adding Rohypnol and other date rape drugs to people’s drinks. I never thought this could happen to me and I was very fortunate that I caught what was going on before anything happened. I have learned my lesson with stranger danger and to never, under any circumstances, take drinks from strangers.
Stay safe collegiettes. HCXO.