I was 19 or 20 years old at the time. It's been so long I can't remember for sure. All I know is I was underage.

I was home from college for winter break. It was Saturday night, and my friends and I made plans to go Korean clubbing, or K-clubbing for short.

While the whole K-clubbing scene has pretty much died as far as I know, it was a thing back in the day. There was Sagas, Le Prive, Karnak, Mega, Flamingo's, to name a few. So what exactly is K-clubbing and how is it different from regular clubbing?

Well, for one thing everyone there was pretty much Korean. Other than maybe Nicholas Cage who you'd sometimes see at a booth by himself with his bodyguards standing next to him as he scoped out the girls on the dance floor. (Not surprisingly, he would end up marrying a Korean girl a few years later.)

Besides the people, the other thing that made these clubs different from a typical Hollywood club is you couldn't just go and stand around and hang out. There was a whole process. You had to call your waiter, reserve a table, and depending on the size of the table, you had to order a certain amount of drinks and food. For example, a table of four dudes usually had to order a bottle of watered down Crown Royal, a fruit platter, and some coke chasers. That would cost $200, plus another $50 to tip the waiter. If you were a "baller", you could order the Crown Royal Special Reserve.

What made K-clubbing especially unique, to the point where they used to write articles about it in the LA Times, was something called "booking". They did this at every Korean club. The waiters would go around grabbing girls by the wrist and walking them to another customer's table. This was considered perfectly normal back then and was pretty much why girls got tables for free. All they needed to do was leave a tip. I know it sounds exploitative, and maybe it was, but this was how we would meet people back then.

Once a girl sat at your table, she might just immediately get up and leave, of course, but most of the time you'd pour them a shot and make small talk and see where things might lead from there. Sometimes you hit it off and the next thing you knew your friends and her friends are making plans to hang out and party together. Maybe you all go singing at a nearby noraebang, or go grab a bite at Hodori. But more often than not, you eventually fall into an awkward silence, and then the girl gets up and leaves, after having drank some of your expensive alcohol.

Perhaps the funniest part about K-clubbing was that throughout the night the DJ would throw in the occasional slow jam, and a handful of brave guys would go find some girl to ask out onto the dance floor where they could dance like they were at their high school prom.

It was another time, I guess, but this was the kind of stuff that young Korean-Americans did back in the day, of which I was one. Remember, this was when there was no such thing as Uber, which meant every weekend, Koreatown would be filled with a bunch of drunk teenagers and twenty-somethings driving through the heart of Los Angeles.

Which brings us back to the night in question. Since I was back in LA, I'd made plans to meet up with an old girl friend and her friends one night while I was home on break. I invited my college roommates so we could all party together. We met at the club, had fun, then the lights inevitably came on, and it was time to go home. I was still buzzing from the alcohol as I got in my car, along with my girl friend and one of her friends, both of whom I was giving a ride home. But just as I started heading out I thought I better check on my roommates and made a U-turn at the intersection just in time to hit an oncoming car.

The front of my car crumpled into the other car's driver side door. I remember a moment, right after the impact, of meeting eyes with the other driver. He might as well have been me, just another young Korean guy who was enjoying a night on the town. I have no idea what made me do it. Probably fear. I was drunk, underaged, and I'd just hit another car, so I made a split second decision, put the car in reverse, backed up, then floored it as I put the car in drive. People who happened to be leaving the club and crossing the street all scattered as I made my escape. The girls started screaming. Thank God I didn't hit anyone. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God.

The days that followed were a blur. My mom noticed what I'd done to the car, of course, and of course I lied through my teeth about the whole thing. Then came Christmas, and New Year's, and nothing happened. I started thinking I was in the clear. I headed back up north to start the Spring semester and was just starting to think I'd gotten lucky yet again when I came home from class one day and there was a message waiting for me on the answering machine.

It was from my mom who said she'd gotten a call from the police asking about a hit and run from back in December. Shit.

I remember thinking my life was over. I wasn't even 21 years old. But when I eventually got on the phone with a detective, I got away with telling him that I wasn't drinking that night, that I'd just panicked and fled the scene out of fear. Eventually he told me I was lucky since the person I hit wasn't interested in pressing charges. They just wanted my insurance information so they could file the claim.

Later, someone told me that this guy in my class at school actually knew the person I hit. Me and that guy didn't really get along, but apparently he talked his friend out of pressing charges. I never found out if that story was true, but if it is, I definitely owe him one.

The thing is, I've lost track of how many times in my life I've had experiences like this. Maybe they're usually not as dramatic, but I can't count the number of times where I've dodged a bullet, caught a lucky break, or endured a horrible experience only to later realize that it was actually a blessing in disguise. I can't help wondering if someone isn't out there watching over me, making sure I serve my purpose, whatever that might be. Or maybe I'm just living in a simulation. Whatever it is, all I know is I'm so thankful for everything I have in my life today. I might not be rich, or famous, or young, but I'm still here, still pushing myself forward each day, and loving every moment. Thank you for reading.

The night I almost ruined my life and why it sometimes feels like God is watching over me🎧

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