I drank six beers and took six shots, and thought I should drive us home. I thought wrong. I got pulled over, as you could probably guess. Cops tend to freak out when you turn the wrong way down a one-way street. To my credit, I noticed instantly and made an illegal u-turn. "Excuse me, Sir, have you been drinking?" There was no way out of this one. My newly 21-year-old-serious-girlfriend was with me, and the last thing I wanted was for her to get arrested (if only I felt the same about her safety, right?). But she did, and so did I, and we both were granted a free night in the county lockup. She (my girlfriend) had one roommate. I, on the other hand, had 47. That's an odd number to remember, but I do, nearly 20 years later. In case you're wondering, did we break up? Yes, and if you're also wondering how that night went. It SUCKED!

The point of the story begins right here.

At one point in the middle of the night, I moved off my concrete bed, which was the middle of the jail cell floor, onto a bench seat that had just opened up. The person who was sitting there decided to abandon it for a stroll. Once he decided to return to his seat told me I need to move because "it was his seat." Keep in mind more than 30 minutes had gone by before I dared to sit there. He proceeded to tell me to "get the f*** off the bench." When I told him I wasn't moving, his response was idiotic. It was threat after threat after threat followed by the typical high school "clap" of "what do you think you're looking at?" It was at this moment where I snapped. I had this realization that nothing was going to happen. What was he going to do, shank me? No, this was the Fort Wayne "drunk tank." I was 6 inches taller, and no doubt had 60 lbs on this guy.

With no fear in my eyes or care for the consequences at the moment, I looked back at him with authority, raised my voice, and said, "what the hell do you think you're going to do about it? That's what I thought, not a damn thing. Just keep talking, buddy, and walk away."

And that's precisely what he did. He kept talking, and he didn't do a thing about it. In my entire life, I had never been more ready to "throw down" than I did at that moment. I had been in jail for only 6 hours and had already established my "street cred."

That night I spent in jail was one of the worst nights of my life, but at the same time, one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. For one, it was this horrible realization that there were consequences for my decisions, both good and bad, and two, there's no reason to complain about something you're not willing to change yourself. Getting in a fist-a-cuffs is not the ideal analogy but the confidence to ask yourself that question is.

Every day of our lives, we face life's challenges. And constantly, we are colliding with specific social issues we disagree with. With all of these challenges and disagreements, we have an option. We can choose to complain, or we can actually do something about it.