On April 4th 1999, University of California, Davis student David Thornton drank himself to death on his 21st birthday. Despite Thornton's death and others similar to his, many students at UC Davis and around the country partake in this sort of self-destructive behavior. This year, I undertook a project to document 21st birthdays of UC Davis students. Young people place a lot of significance on the day you are able to buy and consume alcoholic beverages. The birthday is often celebrated with the consumption of large quantities of alcohol and sometimes illicit drugs as well. 

Just this week, I received a call from my best friend since 1st grade informing me a youth baseball teammate of ours had died of alcohol poisoning. Alfanso Mungia was a talented left-handed pitcher and outfielder who went on to play baseball at Sacramento High School. His father, Ken, was a coach of our team along with my father. We lost touch after our days as teammates but I occasionally saw the elder Mungia around Sacramento. My dad had just ran into Ken at the store a couple months ago. Never have I had a story I was working on hit so close to home. 

It is one thing to work on a story that you care about, and which you want to shed light on for others to see. It is another thing for that issue you are covering to suddenly become personal; suddenly it has more meaning to you. I never was close to Alfanso, we were just teammates some eight years ago.It is still scary nevertheless to learn of a death that seems so senseless, so random. Scary not only because it is someone I knew, but because I turn 21 on December 28th. 

Joe Jaszewski
 joeja@ucdavis.edu