One Quick Moment

I remember always being so nervous and scared to drive. How would I remember what all the signs mean? How will I know when I can make a U-turn? How will I know when to turn left? All these thoughts came in my head, when I would be in the car and watch as my parents drove me around somehow knowing exactly what to do. But, they’re you’re parents so you wouldn’t expect them to ever crash, right?

There have always been some moments that frightened me, like when they would speed through a yellow light, or drive while texting, or not fully stop at a stop sign. However, I never thought one of those mistakes could be serious, that they were just little mistakes, not something that could cause an accident. I remember the day like it was yesterday, my dad was taking me and my sister to school and I was sitting in the front seat holding my project that I spent weeks constructing. We were running late, like we usually do and it was pouring rain and dark. My dad saw a shortcut by turning into a small street, instead of waiting at the traffic light. We all celebrated this shortcut, and the fact that we might not be too late for school. But this street was tricky, with stop signs that weren’t consistent—some intersections had them, others didn’t. Something not everyone would notice if they were rushing, such as my dad.

I, however saw it all happen, I saw us pass the stop sign and I saw the car coming from the other side. I yelled stop, but it was too late, the car had already hit us, hit me, right in the passenger side door. I felt our car move across the road and get pushed on the grass in a ditch. I couldn’t believe it, I had never experienced a car accident before. It felt so surreal, as though I was watching a movie. I couldn’t believe anything that was happening, that we crashed so close to school, so close to our destination. I always read that accidents happen more often when your closer to home or your destination, but I never thought I would experience it.

My dad got out of the car, to assess the damage and talk with the person he hit. I sat frozen, trying to distract myself, I stared at my now ruined project. Weeks of hard work had been destroyed in a split second, and I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. All of this could have been avoided if we had just stopped. I saw the woman from the other car come and check on me, she asked me if I was okay, unable to speak, I just nodded, but we both knew that wasn’t true. My mom came to pick us up and take us home, and I tried catching a glimpse of the damage. The passenger side was completely destroyed, the door crumpled beyond repair. I had to climb out through the driver’s side, a reminder of how serious the damage was.Soon the police and tow truck arrived, and I was horrified on what we would do. My dad came home later, in a sad voice he told me the car had been totaled. The damage was so bad, the insurance didn’t see it worth saving. Our car, the car I was going to take, was now gone. Just like that we went from our biggest worry being how late we will be to school, to how we will get a new car.

When the insurance company came to collect our now broken car. It brought back all the pain I felt that day. Though it wasn’t physical pain, it hurt knowing that our car, filled with so many memories, was now gone. As wel collected our stuff, all the memories came back, all the road trips we took in it, the Black Friday shopping we did, driving to the airport to pick up family. All those memories now gone.

Now that I’ve started driving, I still stop a little extra at stop signs to make sure no one is speeding by. I look both ways before I turn right on a left right. And I always make sure to not look at my phone while driving. No matter what, I never break these rules, because no matter how confident I might feel about my driving ability, or if I feel I know the road so well. Anything could happen.