The curse

The
senior curse prowls through our hallways in search of it’s next
victim. We don’t understand why it takes pleasure in such cruelty
each year or why it laughs when devastation is rained upon us. The
senior curse is a well-known phrase in my high school. Every year at
least one student, unfortunately, passes away due to car-related
accidents, but I can’t help to think that this “senior curse”
doesn’t only affect students. I’ve had to endure two family
deaths, only months apart, due to car accidents and both could have
been avoided. A drivers ed is simply the first step to
diminishing the number of fatal car accidents in the world.

From
personal experience, the people who get into the most accidents are
the ones that lack a drivers ed. The sole purpose of them is
to make sure we know how to follow through with safety precautions.
Anyone who doesn’t have this knowledge may be a danger to
themselves and anyone around them. Just three years ago, a senior
from my high school was walking to school like any other typical
morning but that day turned into tragedy when a woman accidentally
hit him. Two years ago, another one of our seniors was found dead
after her car hit a tree. It was later found that she had been
texting while driving. Both of these students never got to graduate
and nothing but anguish came from these deaths. If there was more
insight about the dangers of the road, perhaps these students could
have known what it feels like to walk across that stage to receive
their diploma.

We,
as friends and family members, shouldn’t exclusively rely on a
drivers ed to protect the lives of loved ones. We should
actively remind them to practice safe driving before it becomes
life-threatening. My uncle, 24 at the time, did not take these
preventive measures seriously and passed away after speeding. Nothing
could prepare us for the heartbreak that came after and there was no
indication that it’d occur once more, a few months later, with
another one of our family members. A combination of an overnight job
and sleep deprivation caused my cousin to hit a street light and pass
away. Sometimes irresponsibility isn’t the reason for these
accidents. More often than not it’s one’s adherence to a
responsibility that is what inevitably causes this trauma.
Regardless, we must stress that mental health is much more important
than a job that can cost them their life.

The
unfortunate truth is that many of us don’t take life seriously. We
taunt death because we think it’s a game just for fun but it’s much
more than we’d like to imagine. Making sure we all get the
necessary training through a drivers ed or making sure that
we place our mental health before a job is the least we can do to not
cause our friends and families pain. It’s what will undoubtedly
save our lives from the curse.