In the most basic sense, driver education is important because it teaches students the mechanics and laws of driving. However, one thing that the driver education system has struggled to get students to understand is just how dangerous driving truly is and how seriously it needs to be taken. After driving for a while, driving becomes second nature for many of us, and we become overconfident and less careful. It is this overconfidence and carelessness that causes people to make poor decisions. People speed, drive under the influence, run stop lights, and all sorts of other things thinking that the rules simply don’t apply to them. To combat this problem, we need to find a way for people to fully understand just how dangerous driving can be. 
Even though it is often poor decisions that result in car accidents, sometimes you can be doing everything right, and bad things still happen, which is what happened to me during the summer before my senior year. I was trying to cross a busy intersection that I was not familiar with. After making it about halfway through the intersection, I turned to my right and saw a car speeding towards me. I stepped on the gas to try and hurry across the intersection before it got to me, but it was too late. Suddenly, I felt the other car slam into me and the horrifying sound of screeching and metal slamming metal filled the air. Even though I knew what had just happened, I didn’t want to believe it. I wished that I was dreaming, but I couldn’t deny what I saw when I looked over and saw the destroyed passenger side door, airbags, and broken glass strewn across the car. I was so shaken up and ashamed that all I could do was sit there as my eyes began to fill with tears. My mind was spinning and all I could think about was how I could have made a mistake so stupid. How could I have misjudged it so badly? My parents are never going to forgive me? What if the other person is seriously injured or killed? 
As I spiraled and eventually started sobbing, a kind man in a neon yellow shirt came to my window. He asked me how I was and if I wanted to call my parents. He helped me out of the car and called my dad. Another lady called 911 and then helped me take pictures of the damage. Looking at my car was almost unbearable as it forced me to face what had just happened. After what felt like an eternity, the emergency vehicles and my dad arrived. Then, through teary eyes and a guilt-ridden mind, I explained things to my dad and sorted things out with the police officers and the other driver. 
Even though August 19th, 2022 will go down as one of the worst days of my life. I will also remember it as one of the best days of my life because it was one of my luckiest. I could have been killed that day, but I am still here today writing this essay. The truth is that everyone is not as lucky as I am to have been able to walk away alive. My cousin, 35 years prior, was killed in an accident much like my own. He was driving to work, like any other day, when another driver struck his car and killed him. At only 16 years old, Jason was killed, leaving his friends and family to mourn him longer than they would ever know him. 
Since it happened so many years before I was born, I never met him, but after my crash, I felt connected to him and like I knew him. On the day of my crash, my friend had randomly offered me an iced tea. At the time, I thought nothing of it and I had never really drank it in the past. However, I discovered that Jason also had an iced tea in the car when he crashed. Strangely, I think that was his way of protecting me that day. 
If I took anything away from that experience and knowing my cousin’s story, it would be to never get careless. I had the chance to walk away from my crash, but he like many others, didn’t. Make good choices while you still have the chance. You are alive today. Don’t make poor choices that could take that away from you or someone else.