What Could Have Been

One
night, I take a right turn, only to learn it wasn’t right. The red
and blue flashes brightly in my rearview mirror. I panic. I knew I
was speeding to make it home on time. The cop shook his head
disappointed, as I sat disappointed in myself.

The
thing about that night that shakes me up is not the ticket I got, or
the court date I had to attend, or the money I had to pay. That
night, I learned how serious it could have been. I made it out okay
without a scratch, but how many people do what I did and kill
themselves – or worse – someone else?

I
wish I didn’t need the fear of “what could have been” distilled
in me that night. I wish I understood the magnitude of what even
speeding could do. The cop called me reckless, and I was. What would
he say about drinking and driving? Texting while driving? Ever since
that night, I step in a car and realize my life and so many others
are at stake. The simple fact is that not enough people realize it.
The first time driving on your own, you have the caution and the fear
and the responsibility. But too many of us get used to it and begin
to think of it as no big deal, when in fact it always will be. It
shouldn’t take a ticket to make you right your wrongs. It shouldn’t
take an accident to make others see the danger. It shouldn’t take the
death of a loved one to understand that safe driving is so important.
People need to put in the effort. Social media platforms need to
address it further. Laws only go so far unless we implement them and
put efforts in to follow them. We are the problem, let’s be the
solution, too.