The cost of a Second.

It is really easy for people to think of traffic safety as just a bunch of annoying rules, speed limits, or random numbers you see on the news. Before all of this happened, I used to see it that way too. But for me, safe driving is not just a topic for an essay anymore. It is completely personal, and it is something I think about every single time I open a car door. On a Saturday morning around 4 a.m., my close cousin, Mayleigh Beaver, lost her life in a solo car crash near the intersection of Copper Hill Drive and McBean Parkway. She was only twenty-one years old, and she had just celebrated her birthday a few days before it happened. The crash was caused by distracted driving, and in one split second, our whole family’s world was turned completely upside down.

Mayleigh and I were super close growing up. She was the kind of person who just brought energy into every room she walked into. She was always full of life, always laughing, and she had so much ahead of her that she was planning to do. By Monday morning following the crash, a ton of people had already gone down to the intersection to set up a makeshift memorial where it all happened. It was covered in flowers, candles, and handwritten notes from friends and people in the community who loved her. Seeing all of that was heartbreaking, but the absolute hardest part of this whole tragedy is the fact that she left behind a one-year-old baby. Knowing that her kid is going to grow up without ever really knowing how awesome their mom was, or getting to hear her laugh, is a heavy heartbreak that I carry with me every single day.

Losing Mayleigh completely changed how I look at being behind the wheel of a car. When you are young, you kind of live with this feeling that you are invincible. You see warnings about safe driving all the time, but you never think it will actually happen to you or anyone you love. It is so easy to justify looking down at your phone for just one second to check a text, change a song on your playlist, or completely zone out while you are stuck in heavy traffic. But Mayleigh’s crash proved to me that driving is a massive responsibility that everyone takes for granted. A car can destroy everything in an instant if you lose focus for even a brief moment. Paying attention to the road is not just about avoiding a ticket or following the law, it is literally the difference between life and death.

Every single time I get into the driver's seat now, I think about Mayleigh and the baby she left behind. The first thing I do is make sure my phone is put completely away where I cannot reach it or get tempted to look at it. My eyes are locked on the road, the traffic lights, and the cars around me because I know how fast things can go wrong. I have also started talking to my friends and my peers about it a lot more. When I am riding in the passenger seat and I see a friend reach for their phone while they are driving, I speak up and tell them to put it down. Some people think it is not a big deal, but I tell them my cousin’s story because I never want another family to go through the text messages, the sudden phone calls, and the lifetime of pain that our family is still dealing with today.

Getting this scholarship would help me out a massive amount as I transition to college, especially with the heavy financial stress my family is facing right now. But more than that, it gives me a platform to keep Mayleigh’s memory alive and spread awareness about the dangers of distracted driving to other students. Her passing has deeply impacted myself and my family. Losing her changed how I look at being behind the wheel. I write about how this tragedy motivates me to stay locked in on the road, speak up to my friends about being distracted while driving. Moving forward with my life and going after my goals motivates me to work as hard as I possibly can. I want to honor her memory by making smart, responsible choices every single day, both when I am out on the road and as I work toward my future career.