When Life Beats You Down, Get Help and Get Up

Will Allison’s novel, Long Drive Home, highly emphasizes the emotional impact that a car accident can have on everyone involved in the accident. Also, Allison sends a strong message, that no matter who you are, with the right situations and moments you could go to the extreme and make bad decisions.

All of this, can also be related with the drunk driving exhibit at the Lázaro Library because there was a section in the exhibit that demonstrated steps, for people to follow, in order to cope with an extremely difficult situation. In other words, the book gives you an example of a terrible situation and the emotional effects that can harm you if you don’t get help, and the exhibition gives you the tools to help you through the after effects of the accident.

The novel and the exhibition gives us two situations that contrast in the after emotional effects that each person had. In the novel, the characters didn’t care a lot about what Glen went through, they were mainly worried about Sara’s and Juwan’s family emotional health. When in reality, Glen was part of the accident too and needed help. Since he didn’t get any, later on, he submerge himself into alcohol and obsessed over things that he shouldn’t, like making Derek pay for something that was not his fault, Juwan’s death.

In the exhibition, Fiesta II showed the testimony of a woman named Gloria Quiñones who lost her daughter due to a drunk driver, and later on her husband committed suicide because he couldn’t endure the pain. Nevertheless, Gloria never lost her want to live and started educating people on the dangers of drinking and driving because she followed the steps suggested by the book “¿Qué hacer en el peor día de tu vida?” Gloria’s story can be contrasted to Glen’s situation in the novel because while Glen was drinking and fighting, Gloria was rebuilding her life in a very optimistic way, even though she lost half of her family. On the right side, you can appreciate a picture from the exhibit, where Gloria stated that the only thing that she wanted to do, after losing half of her family, was to live.

To summarize, the novel and the exhibition relate in terms of the after effects of a terrible situation such as car accidents. Although, the exhibition specifies in drunk driving accidents, the coping techniques can relate to any bad situation. Also, with the right help and motivation, one bad experience can have a good emotional outcome. If the help doesn’t arrive on time, the person’s emotional health may be at risk. Therefore, from the novel and the exhibition everyone can learn that it is important to look for help before it is too late. An example is that Glen lost control of himself and his marriage, and Gloria Quiñones, lost half of her family and still managed to live her life.

Since Gloria's husband committed suicide after the death of his daughter, I find it important and relevant to show you two videos. The fist one gives you advice on how to deal with the death of a loved one, and the second video shows you ways you can help a person ,who is having suicidal thoughts for some reason.