ALEX J SCHUBAUER

oh Jeffrey, how many followers did you have at the time of this post? Gosh I hope it was more than zero.

(Source: jephborer)

One night last July Hanna Vasina was having an eventful night out, when she was pulled over by Lincoln Police. The next morning she woke up with a DUI on her record, and a new perspective on life.

Hanna Vasina, tall with shockingly-red dyed hair and a noticeable septum (middle part of the nose) piercing, is talking about high school. “I always had a strict curfew,” she says of living with her parents. Her time as a minor was mostly uneventful during evenings and weekends. This helped lead her to a more active nightlife when she left the house, which eventually led to that night last summer.

Vasina grew up in Lincoln with her parents, brother and sister. Back then she wanted to work at a zoo or be a fashion designer. Like a lot of young girls, she liked animals and clothes. She also liked playing sports, especially softball, until she tore her rotator cuff in middle school. That put an end to sports, but she still kept a passion for them.

She eventually attended North Star High School in Lincoln. By then, her interests had changed.  She was interested in music, and hung out with friends. She learned to speak German, but joined the French club just to stick it to her German teacher, “mostly since she forced me to compete every year in the language fair.”

Vasina also worked at her school newspaper all four years. Her work there caught the attention of Scott Winter, a journalism professor at University of Nebraska. Although she received a $50,000 scholarship from the University of Colorado at Boulder, it was still probably too expensive to be an option. As much as she would have liked to have gone, it was in her best interests to stay in Lincoln. “I probably would have dropped out of college if I lived near the mountains,” she said half-jokingly. She enrolled in the journalism college at Nebraska, with dreams of becoming a sportswriter.

Going to college is always a substantial change in people’s lives, but it was especially different for Vasina. Once she settled in at UNL, her parents relocated to California, where her father received a better job offer. Because of the distance and lack of funds, she wouldn’t get to see them as much after that.

She soon realized that sports writing wasn’t what she really wanted. She said, “I like sports, but I don’t LOVE sports.” She decided to change to news editing instead.

Her first two years went as smoothly as could be expected. She was having fun, but got into “the routine of drinking.” This lasted until the summer just before her junior year, when she ended up in the back of a squad car.

It was 2 a.m. on a Friday night. Vasina had just attended a costume party, and was driving to a friend’s house to crash for the night. She was two blocks away when she was stopped, still wearing her Batman costume. “I wasn’t going to embarrass myself with the field sobriety tests,” she said, so she was breathalyzed, handcuffed, and taken to detox.

The friend whose house she was trying to drive to came to pick her up later that night. He joked, “I think you’re a little too drunk to be saving Gotham tonight, Batman.”

 “I just started crying,” Vasina said, “but it’s funny to me now.”

Vasina’s life since that night might not seem different to anyone else, but it put her in a whole different place. She still went to school, worked at Hot Topic, and listened to the same music. But everything around these constants seemed strange. Her license was revoked for a year. Trying to get to work and school every day made her realize what she had previously took for granted.

She prefers to put a silver lining on the DUI. It obviously could have been much worse. She escaped the night with only probation and the loss of her license, instead of an injury or death. And the situation allowed her to re-think everything in her life. She had to assess where she was at with her schooling, job, friends, and life in general. She says that night served as a great “wake-up call” for her.

Now a year has passed since the DUI, and things are looking up. Her license is back and she’s driving again. She plans to graduate in the spring, and is hopeful for her future. She knows that the DUI on her record could be a problem for employment but “I just have to work twice as hard to get past it,” she said.

Her dream is to go to California, reconnect with her parents, and work at a magazine like Alternative Press. She would also love to run a small music magazine herself.

But that’s all in the future. Right now, Vasina is finishing up her final year of college. Still having fun, (she’s about to turn 21,) but being smarter about it. She’s still listening to her music, from hardcore to grunge, from Such Gold to La Dispute. Look up her Twitter feed, where she’ll provide “snarky commentary” and freak out about a mention from her favorite bands.

Sure, her life took a turn last summer. But why should she dwell on it? After all, it’s funny to her now.