Firstly, I wanted to thank everyone who responded. Primarily, I wanted to avoid insult-ridden posts that lacked any thoughtful comment, and I'm glad that everyone on these forums knows how to express said thoughts and their opinions.

To give an update on the situation, the driver of the CRV came to my house today and paid me the damages to the mailbox. I told him that I was sorry about the ordeal and that there weren't any bad feelings towards him. I also told him "thank you for that night. It was the one of the very few times I have ever felt alive, and it was the funnest night of all my eighteen years." To which he responded "I'm glad that I could have given you that."

Doc, I have always respected and valued your opinions, and you've given me great advice in the past when I ran into trouble with a ticket. Please, don't think any less of me for what I am going to say.

A quote that immediately came to mind when I read this thread in its entirety was "I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them." While it was showcased in Jurassic Park (I believe), it doesn't detract from what it means. My peer did something wrong, but he showed the backbone that very few people my age have. He called me, having acquired my number from the Wakefield police officer I had spoken to, and delivered what I felt was an earnest apology and offered to pay for his and his friends choices. I accepted the money only because it was not my own that replaced the previous mailboxes nor the current one. If it were, then I would have told him that the apology would have sufficed.

I do not consider myself a "kid," and have not for a long time. Certain things in my life have allowed me to claim that title (in my opinion). Having said that, my parents and my upbringing have nothing to do with the situation. I acted completely under my own volition and chose my course of action based on what I felt as appropriate, taking license to do what had to be done, in my eyes, to handle the situation that was at hand. To say that my parents should have any part of the certainly life-threatening events that took place that night is completely false. Rather, I feel that my parents have done what they could in parenting, and I made my own decisions after the fact. I am separate from my parents and expect to be treated as such.

In regards to the incident, I know that my friend and I were wrong in doing what we did. Yes, we put the general public at risk of severe injury or death. Yes, I placed an enormous amount of faith and risk in what is essentially two teenage drivers behind the wheel of cars that they should or should not be behind of in the first place. And yes, we did so while completely ignoring our own safety.

Do I regret my actions? The answer is a resounding no. If I could change anything from that night, I would not change a single thing. I am not going to make this a mouth piece for "This is what America was built on, free people defending them and their own and their property." But it felt right to me. And if I didn't do what I did then I would have been betraying my character. Knowing full well what could *possibly* happen, I decided that I would make something happen for myself.

I respect everyone who stated they would not have given chase. At the end of the day, however, let it be said that I defended myself and my actions not in the vein of an illogical teenager with a car, but a young adult that acted knowingly, accepted responsibility for these actions, and took them into his life with that much more experience to draw on in the future. In a post-present and similar circumstance, would I give chase again? Hopefully no. It is a question to which there is no honest reply. The only response I could give would be that I can only hope to be more mature and not act as audaciously as I did.

To finish off this absurdly long post, I want to thank Franc Rauscher. You gave me the inspiration to write this with the truth and clarity that I felt when the chips were on the table. If I have accomplished nothing at all with this post, then at least I did one thing that many people wiser than me would not have done.

Thanks again for those who posted. It is 3:00am, and I have class in the morning. Good night, and make sure your mailboxes are still in place!