“My Driving Story”

Turning sixteen is supposed to be one of the best years of your life. I mean why would it not be? I finally earned the freedom I had been anxiously waiting for throughout my adolescent years. Gaining the ability to drive on my own and being able to strive in places I never imagined possible, at least that’s what I envisioned turning sixteen would be like.

I was never an anxious driver because I knew the essential traffic rules and spent endless hours with my dad, learning details of the road. Due to my years of practice I reassured myself “driving couldn’t be that scary ”, right? I drove so often that it became natural, and I never second guessed where the road would take me. With that mentality, I was taking my routine trip to CVS to restock on energy drinks, listening to my music, and just embellishing the idea that I loved this life I was living. This was a common drive for me throughout the week, so I knew that if I went at night I would have to go a different route because the shortcut was hidden due to no street lights surrounding the entrance, so I went the long way just to be cautious. After turning left at a stop light, I reached the middle turn lane that divided the highway. I waited and checked to make sure no one was within the length of my sight and continued to execute my turn to go to CVS. Moving the steering wheel I can see that I was almost all the way across the street then in an instant everything changed. Slamming into me I barely had any time to think before realizing I had been crashed into. Suddenly I was sent spinning into what felt like an endless loop. I was so frozen in fear I could hardly scream let alone try and figure out what had happened to me. Finally the world went quiet and I was still, sitting in silence waiting to feel death, but then I realized I was alive and had stopped spinning. Just like that the world’s chaos struck inside of me, and I could feel my heart beating out of the depths of my chest and the slightest tremor begin in my hands. I opened the car door and stepped out to an unforgettable sight. Red and blue lights mixed with their ear-piercing sirens enclosed around the scene of scattered glass and debris, followed by officers rushing in every direction. I was completely dissociated from the voices and motion around me because all I could focus on was the blood, so much blood as if the road had just been painted. “Are you ok? This isn’t your fault” snapped me back into reality. Where did this come from? I looked around to find disseminated pieces of what looked to be some type of motorcycle. Opposite of its location, the driver was quickly surrounded by first responders and within seconds they took him to the hospital.“How did they get here so fast? We just got into a crash?” I thought to myself. Sinking into the gravel depths of the road I just began screaming, yelling so loud until my lungs nearly collapsed. Turns out I was struck as a result of a high speed chase and was slammed into with the impact of someone going 130 mph. The motorcyclist thought he had enough space to escape the collision so he tried to weave around the narrow space between my car and his, but sadly that was impossible. Eventually the scene was cleared and just when we were about to leave one last officer came up to me and reached for my palm. Seeing the look in his eyes, watching him try to think of a way to speak to me without saying something wrong, he then finally gives one last breath and says “Grace the motorcyclist passed on the way to the hospital” and then time froze, I couldn’t speak or move, feeling the cold tones of fear go down my back but yet I couldn’t even stand up. No one ever prepared me for death in this kind of way. I mean I knew what death was but I didn’t know him, and still my heart ached at the idea that someone’s family lost a loved one, someone they won’t ever get to say goodbye to. His name was Austin L’heureux and he was 19 years old.

The idea of death never really scared me, death is inevitable, and death happens to each and every one of us, but having death stare you down in the face while watching it happen to somebody else truly changes one’s perspective on the aspect of what death truly means. Although my accident was tragic and heartbreaking, I’m not shedding light on this collision to show someone what they should or shouldn’t do as a driver. I was introduced to a new way of living as a result of what happened. Learning that tomorrow is never promised and life is a gift I once took for granted. Austin’s family lost someone very important to them, and no matter what his decisions were I choose to walk through my life living for him and shedding a positive outlook on such a sad situation. I started thanking God every day that he blessed me with such faith to learn how to change this chapter of my life and that he surrounded me with people there to help pick me up off my feet when all I wanted to do was sink lower into the heartache that was brought on to me. I’m not able to turn back time but I am with the ability to say, Austin was a friend, a brother and family to an endless number of people, and as I take each step into every remaining day with the mindset that it may be my last I am reminded what death looked like, staring back at me in that sheer moment of terror and I started to walk each day with God by my side, feeling strength in my heart. Taking the courage knowing Austin is looking over me and hoping he sees me spreading awareness that things like these can and should be prevented. It breaks my heart that this happened, but I must focus on the now instead of the when, and although it took me a long time to realize the true importance of life once I did, that lesson stayed with me forever.