Make Good Choices

During fall 2019 to spring 2020 semesters, Sean Gilbert, a criminal justice senior, attended several University of Texas Rio Grande Valley men’s basketball games. Gilbert sat with fellow Greek Life students, such as Alpha Sigma Tau (AST), and he danced and stood to the music played by UTRGV’s Pep Band or listened to the speakers in the Fieldhouse. Gilbert joined Tau Kappa Epsilon’s Kappa Beta chapter in spring 2019 and was nominated for AST’s Mr. AST in fall 2019. He also volunteered at the “wrapping of the letters” event during homecoming week. Whenever Gilbert interacts with friends or strangers, he’ll leave them laughing and smiling. Although Gilbert’s active on campus, this isn’t his first attempt at getting a degree.

           Back in 2014, Gilbert went through several majors at one of UTRGV’s legacy-institutions, the University of Texas-Pan American. He started with business marketing, then business management, then another business degree, before moving on to mass communication. However, Gilbert said one of the things that contributed to his academic moves was experiencing a “devastating” break-up during his second year of college in 2016-2017 from a girl named Mara. Gilbert said he doesn’t remember why he and Mara ended their relationship because “it might have been just something small.”

           “I feel like, at the time, it was probably something big, but then as you get older and time moves on, you realize it was something so small and not even worth remembering,” Gilbert said.

Moreover, Gilbert was too “stubborn” and didn’t want to commit to studying and “being a good student,” and eventually stopped seeing himself as a person in the business industry. Gilbert’s grades began to drop as he had an overall disinterest in his classes. Gilbert skipped classes and soon, his GPA fell below 2.0, which placed him on academic probation. UTPA gave Gilbert two choices: bring his GPA up in a semester or take a break from the university. He chose the break.

In addition, Gilbert began drinking alcohol. According to Gilbert, his drinking wasn’t “too intense” to the point where he felt negative health effects, such as alcohol poisoning, liver damage or blacking out. The drinking was less of vice and more a once or twice a week thing. Gilbert drank with his friends, saying it helped “take the edge off a little bit.” 

“It just felt good to be around people who cared about me and I think that… helped me out more,” Gilbert said.

           While on his break, Gilbert discovered an interest in criminal justice one summer night in 2016.

           Gilbert was with two friends, Miguel “Ty” Garza and Michael Fitch around 10 p.m. at his apartment when they decided to drive around the McAllen area. They made their way down 10th Street where they noticed a man on a motorcycle, driving next to them. Gilbert said he made a mental note and drove on. Once the three friends got to Bourbon Street Grill, on 4800 N. 10th St., they noticed the man’s bike on the ground near debris. Gilbert saw the damaged motorcycle, a shoe in the middle of the road, and the motorist crawling towards the sidewalk. Without hesitation, he said he got out of the car and ran to help the man. Getting to the wounded man, he tried to speak to him, but the man mumbled in pain. Gilbert eventually discovered that the man’s foot was in the shoe on the road. He also saw the woman who hit the motorcyclist trying to leave, but one of her tires was gone. The people who were in Bourbon Street Grill flooded the scene and rushed toward her car while Gilbert stayed with the man.

He used his belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding as others called the police for further assistance. The injured man kept muttering something to Gilbert, but he couldn’t understand him. “I’m just some idiot kid who just maybe turned 19 or 20 and I was like… I don’t know what I’m doing,” Gilbert said. Although Gilbert isn’t sure why he stopped that night, some little part of him told him to “get off and do that.”

           “I feel like if I couldn’t have done everything, [I asked myself] ‘can I sleep at night, can I say I did what I could?’” said Gilbert. “That’s not the only time that’s happened to me, it’s happened to me about 10 times since then, and every single time it’s still scary. I will [not] fault anybody for not reacting… I’m no hero… I am just a normal guy who was in the right place at the right time.”

“It bothered me to this day,” Gilbert added.

Eventually, the Emergency Medical Services came, placed the man onto the gurney and took him, and his disconnected foot, away. The police asked Gilbert to describe the accident and performed a breathalyzer test on the woman, as they believed she was intoxicated. The way the police performed their duty interested Gilbert, enough that he wanted to study the criminal justice industry further.

           “I thought that was … reassuring and I was like ‘this is something that I can probably get behind,” said Gilbert. “I can’t stress this enough, it just felt so good.”

           After that incident, he decided to attend South Texas College in fall 2016. He took two classes the following semester, then did the EMS program in summer 2018. While at EMS school met Kassandra Bernal, a classmate, who worked with the accident victim from 2016. Bernal told Gilbert that the man was doing fine. Learning this gave Gilbert an answer to one of the biggest moments in his life. Gilbert returned to UTRGV in fall 2018.

           Gilbert doesn’t regret taking a break from school because he said it helped him find what he wants to do in life. He’s scheduled to graduate in fall 2020 and is working on getting hired at the U.S. Border Patrol. Gilbert said he eventually wants to become a sheriff in a small Texas town.