Life Threatening
The best lessons in life are learned when a life threatening event occurs. My lesson came full circle September 11, 2004 at 2:00 am. My friends and I were leaving a party speeding down a two lane highway approaching a car at a standstill. Instead of running into the back of the car, I swerved to the left driving on the wrong side of the road hitting a pothole which made me lose control of the car. The car flipped and slide into a residential driveway heading toward a tree. My three friends in the back seat were able to climb out of the car as I lay unconscious. All I remember is waking up with dirt in my mouth, the car sitting on my neck and people around me screaming in my ear.
When the police arrived, I was unable to answer any of their questions because it took a little while for me to realize where I was. Luckily, the accident happened in my neighborhood and someone was able to reach my family to let them know I was in a car accident. The hardest thing to accept about the accident is the fear of my family loosing me one month after we lost my grandmother. I didn’t realize how hard that phone call would have been if that night ended differently. I walked away from the accident with ten stitches in my leg and three in my ear. The police officer didn’t write me a ticket even though I only had a permit and drove at night. He said my lesson was walking away because he has never seen someone walk away from an accident like that.
It took a month before I was allowed to go back behind the wheel and my curfew was eight pm. After having a bad experience driving from that day forward I took driving very seriously. Whenever I am behind the wheel I am a defensive driver. I never drive too close behind cars and when it rains I drive the speed limit or slower for caution. The best lessons learned are from your mistakes. I am very thankful to be here to reflect on my mistakes preventing me from making new ones.