Well, I'll start with a story. When I was 24 years old, I remember getting pulled over in

Riesel, Texas. The reason why I remember getting pulled over in Riesel, Texas, of all places, it's funny to say that and to watch some of you look at each other like, him too, because many of us have found ourselves pulled over in Riesel, Texas. The reason why I remember it, even though it was so long ago, is at that time,

I was living in college station, and yet I was driving here to Dallas to see Brooke,

who was then just my girlfriend, is now my wife, and yet motivated by love, I might have been

speeding a little bit, you know? I was driving quick down the highway, and as I came through

Reesol, I passed over a hill, and there, lo and behold, was an officer waiting for someone

the likes of me, you know, and so he pulled me over, and as we kind of went through the normal

shindig, I knew the standard operating procedure. I went ahead and I grabbed my license and registration and

I prepared to confess to him all of my sins and take my ticket and move on with my merry day.

And yet what I realized is this was no normal pullover because he was not just going to send me on

after giving me a ticket. Instead, he handed me a pamphlet entitled alive at 25 and the reason this pamphlet

was so interesting is because it was different than the normal way of processing a ticket in the

state of Texas you see for most counties in the state of Texas when you get a speeding ticket

you just merely pay the ticket hop online work through a defensive driving course and you're done you know you get a speeding ticket, you just merely pay the ticket, hop online, work through a defensive

driving course, and you're done. You know, you've atoned for your sins. And yet, Riesel was one of

the only counties in the great state of Texas that required a little bit more. You see, they required

that you would actually show up to an in-person interactive day-long

national safety and driver education course, which just felt crazy to me because I was, one,

just going eight miles per hour over the speed limit. It's not like I was risking anybody's life. And also,

I was 24. I was so close to being alive at 25. Like, couldn't he cut me a break? And yet in this

moment, I knew my destiny was set. I had to spend an entire day at the local police office and I had

to watch poorly edited safety videos and eat stale bags of checks mix

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