Personal experience and its role in learning

¶ … night, but as things would turn out, this Saturady niight would be far from normal. Tonight I was going to a party at Ryan's house.

When I got to Ryan's, it was about 8:30 PM. I was greeted by Raymond and Dave. Although I only knew him for two years at the time, Raymond was a good friend of mine, moving across the street from my house and transferring to my school right around the same time. He played on all the sports teams with me; this, along with our living practically next to each other, cemented our friendship immediately. My history with Dave goes back a lot longer- I had know Dave and been good friends with him since kindergarden and going to the same school up to 5th grade when he transferred to a different school.

We did not keep in touch until we both ended up at the same high school, which rekindled our friendship immediately, as if we never parted ways. Dave, Raymong and I figured we would chill out for a minute at Raymond's house before we started heading for our destination that night- Eddie Steiner's house. Eddie was a rich transfer student that had been kicked out of the last two schools he had went to but he was a really cool kid and my friends and I got along with him well. I had hung out at his house many times before but this was the first time I would be going to a party at his house. We decided to leave for the party around 9:00 with Raymond driving, as always. At the time, Raymond had brand new four door chevy impala with nice rims and a nice sound system. Eddie's house was about thirty minutes away and we decided to stop and get some liquor, which was easy because I had a fake ID. Because there was supposed to be an ice cold keg of beer waiting for us at Eddie's, I thought that three 24oz cans of Bud Light and a pint of Southern Comfort would make a refreshing appetizer before our "main course."

By the time we had arrived at Eddie's, the beer was gone and we each had a few shots of liquor for good measure. I had started to get a little buzz and I could not wait to get in the party. It had been a couple of months since I had been to a party and since I had just broke up with my girlfriend I was hoping to meet some new girls.

Eddie greeted us at the door with a big smile, which may have been alcohol induced, but I still think he was happy to see us, giving us some cups for the keg and gesturing toward the back deck. We went out to the back deck and drank a few more beers. I then started to wonder around to see who all was there. Eddie had a two story house and it seemed like most of the people there were on the main level or outside on the deck.

There was only about sixty kids there and I noticed that most of them were not from my school but Eddie still managed to invite some old friends. Although I had hung out with Eddie before I had never met most of the partygoers.

After wondering around for a bit and drinking a few more beers I noticed that I did not know where Ryan and Dave had gone.

I went and asked Eddie where they had gone and he told me they were in his room, which was in the basement. You walked down the stairs and to the right at the very bottom of the steps was the door to Eddies room. The rest of the basement was unfinished and there were no lights on so you could not see a thing. Opening Eddie's door, I saw Dave and Ryan in there along with about ten other kids, listening to music and playing video games.

A noticed that everybody in Eddie's room was from my school-there were two guys that were a grade younger than me and I was happy to see that the rest were all girls. It was a really big room, including a big screen television on your right and Eddie's bed in the back corner on the same side as the door. There was a big couch right in front of his bed and a loveseat was perpendicular to it but on the same side as the door. Right as you walked in the door almost hit the front of the loveseat.

A noticed Dave and Raymond were behind the couch to the right of the bed. They were smoking weed out of a four foot bong. I walked over to see them and Raymond said he was going to use the bathroom. As he walked off, I couldn't help asking Dave where they had got the weed from. He said Eddie had given it to them. Now I wasn't a big fan of marijuana. I had smoked it a couple times before but really didn't like it. However I was drunk by now and I do stupid things when I'm drunk.

After taking one bong hit I looked up at the room was starting to spin. I had never smoked weed from a bong before and it got me really high. I decided to take another hit and right as I got done I noticed some guy I did not recognize opened the door. He said a few words to one of the girls sitting on the couch and then he looked up at the rest of the room and said "What the ***** are you staring at?"

Now he wasn't necessarily talking to me but when nobody else in the room responded I opened my mouth and said:"Who the ***** are you *****?" He looked over at me and took off his shirt. I noticed he was pretty muscular although he was a lot shorter than me. I was about 6'1" at the time and he looked about 5'10."His face was really ugly and he had tattoos all over his body.

He walked right over to me and punched me straight in the mouth. I did not go down and I manage to grab him and wrestle him to the ground. I got on top of him and punched him one time on his forehead and it split right open. Blood started gushing down his head and I got off of him and he ran out of the room.

Now all I heard was girls screaming and everybody ran out of the room except for me and Dave. I tried to pull myself together but I noticed my mouth really hurt. When he punched me in the mouth he had broken one of my front teeth and the nerve was exposed. Every time I took a breath it felt like someone was kicking me in the teeth.

Next thing I know the door gets kicked open. There is the kid, standing there with a butcher Knife! He starts coming at me- then I noticed he had some friends behind him. There were six of them in all and as he was coming at me with the knife the rest of them were right behind him throwing beer cans and other things in my direction. I backed up around the couch an jumped on the bed. At this point I felt like I was by myself -Dave was nowhere to be seen.

The kid was at the edge of the bed at this point still coming towards me with the knife. I look towards the door and I noticed one of his friends was blocking it. I figured that was my only chance to not get stabbed so I jumped from the bed over the couch, I picked up a wooden chair that was sitting right by the couch and broke it over the arm of the guy guarding the door. I made it about halfway out the door before I was hit in the head by something, and everything went black.

Next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital with my family and my ex-girlfriend. My whole body hurt especially my head and my teeth. I had been unconscious for about 12 hours and I found out later that I had a 25 pound iron weight plate broken over my head.