Brandon also suffers from seizures from time to time. After these occurrances, he must learn how to go through these basic skills all over again. "Do you know how hard it is to sound like this?" Brandon asks. "People look at me like I'm so strange."

An ordinary teenage kid, "I had the world at my fingertips. I had a job, I had a girlfriend, I was on the football team," he said with a slur in his speech. Now Brandon wants to make a difference. Sponsored by the Century Council, Brandon travels all over the nation trying to prevent kids from making the wrong decision, pleading, "I hope to God that none of you have to go through what I've been through." Brandon has visited more than 250,000 parents and students so far. He also communicates with students through the Internet where he receives letters from teens who swear they will make the choice not to drink and drive.

Brandon's father stated, "It seems difficult at times to do something different than what the group wants to do, but Brandon's message is, ëIt's okay to be a leader; it's okay to set a good example.'" Brandon's family was lucky, as seven out of ten families are usually torn apart by accidents like these. They are all grateful that Brandon is alive. Had the paramedics not arrived at the scene within the time they did, Brandon might not be able to deliver the important message he gives to us today.

"It gave me a completely different perspective on the issue and made me realize how lucky I am," remarked freshman student Rebecca Woll from John Jay High School in Cross River, New York. Tom Sweeny, another freshman from John Jay agrees, "It was sad and it got a good message across," he said. The program these students attended was brought to John Jay by an organization called Family University. The organization helps to prevent the abuse of drugs and alcohol and is headed by Sheryl Bernhard, my mother. She reflects on the program saying, "The students were absolutely hypnotized by Brandon's story. In a room filled with 500 upperclassmen, it was so quiet, that you would have heard a pin drop. One student claimed that Brandon really makes you stop and think."

So the next time you are at a party with your friends, and you are tempted to take a puff of that joint or drink a few beers, remember you are not invincible. Brandon said, "You're really screwed for thinking that."

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