Things Happen to People Like Me

Things
Happen to People Like Me

As
a student in high school we often feel invincible in such a way that
tragedies don’t happen to “people like me.” For me I am a
regular Caucasian male that lives in an upper middle-class
neighborhood that goes to a great school and because of this I am
able to receive proper education on things that I interact with like
driving. In school we learn never to drive while intoxicated, always
know who is in your vehicle, don’t text and drive, blah, blah,
blah. To an adult this is all very necessary things that must be said
to the younger generation as adults have experienced these very
tragedies and they are trying to prevent kids from having to go
through what they did but for us, people that have never had these
experiences we do not know the very real risks there are to driving.
October 26^th,
2019 was my last high school homecoming and I got ready with Conner,
a lifelong friend of mine, and we were ready to celebrate. I could
feel the rush of adrenaline going through my body. I was planning on
asking the girl I was taking to be my girlfriend, there was an after
party where tons of the senior class would be going and many more
things. However, I was not the only person who was feeling this rush
of energy, a rush where I felt like I was invincible and that nothing
could stop me, three friends of mine named Naile, Conner, and Logan
felt this rush as well. The clock stuck 10pm and we all started
leaving the high school and the three of them piled into one car and
they made a left and I made a right on a road leaving our high
school. Within minutes of leaving the school, rumors that were going
around and I found myself sat on a curb of a street nearby while my
friends around me were collapsing on the ground in tears. The road
was blocked off and all I could do was stand in shock upon arrival as
I watched what seemed like thousands of flashing blue and red lights.
I learned on Sunday morning at 2am in the emergency room that the
friends I was waiting on to arrive in an ambulance had been
pronounced dead at 10pm due to the tremendous force of the impact of
the car going 89 mph straight into a tree. To reduce the number of
deaths related to driving is quite simple, don’t ever think that
bad things don’t happen to “people like me” because that may be
true until it isn’t and after that, it is too late. The steps I
take are also quite simple as well. I have a picture of my friend
that I lost that day hanging from my rearview mirror that way every
time I hop into the driver seat I know; things do happen to “people
like me.”