Happy Halloween! As I was laying in bed last night, I remembered the car accident that I got into exactly 10 years ago. This accident almost cost me my life and reminded me of all my blessings.
Shortly after the accident, I wrote this e-mail and sent it to some of my friends.
This past Thursday, I went to a party that the school was having for Halloween. The party started at 9 and I was supposed to meet up with my boyfriend at 10 because that was the time when he was supposed to get out of class. My friend Yulia and I were having a lot of fun and at 10, it was time for me to meet Jeremy at the clock on the campus. At 10:20, Jeremy still wasn’t there. I figured I got stood up and so I was really upset. I went back to the party and couldn’t find Yulia and Ken (her boyfriend). Then I got really upset because I was just there and didn’t know what to do. After about 15 min, Yulia came in, pulled me by the arm, and took me out of there. We passed a cop and she looked down, as if she was trying to avoid looking at him. I asked her what was going on and she just told me that Ken got in trouble with the cop and we weren’t allowed to stay; we had to leave right now. So we did. That made me even more upset. This evening definitely sucked. Nothing was going right. As I got into the car, I felt like I was about to cry, but I held it in. When we got on the highway, Ken started speeding up. I didn’t really care because I was way too upset to even think about how scary this situation was. But something told me to put my seatbelt on anyway, so I did. I told my friend Yulia to do so, too. But she was so focused on the road that I guess she didn’t hear me. Ken thought it was very amusing, I guess, ‘cause he started speeding up even more, cutting off people, not using his signals, and basically doing all the things he shouldn’t have been doing. There is a ramp from 695 to 795 and the turn is pretty sharp. I guess Ken realized we weren’t gonna make it, so he slammed on the brakes. But at the speed we were going at (I found out later that we were going up to 125 mph), the car couldn’t slow down. Instead, the car was spinning around. We were about to hit a pole nose first, so Ken slammed harder on the brakes, but that only made the car roll over. It rolled over 2 and ½ times, so yeah, we landed upside down. We had gone over the silver thingy on the side of the road and into the stream right behind it. As soon as the car stopped moving, I unbuckled myself and checked on Yulia and Ken. They were okay, but there was glass (from the windows) all over the car, and I cut myself at different places trying to get out of the car. I was behind the passenger seat and my door was stuck, so I had to get out by getting in the front and through the passenger seat. As I was coming out, the people who had witnessed the accident were shocked. I wasn’t hurt, at all. Yeah, I had a few scratches, but that was it. They kept telling me how lucky we had all been. They saw it all and didn’t think we would have walked out of there alive. The car was totaled, there was nothing left of it. But things could have been so much worse. The ramp itself is a bridge and so we could have fallen off the bridge. Our heads could have hit the windows really hard. Ken and Yulia could have gone right through the windshield. And finally, having done 2 and ½ rollovers, our necks could have got broken.
I believed that the Holy Spirit led me to put the seatbelt on. And I believe that the Lord was in that car, with us. And I know that He blessed us and that if I’m alive today, it is thanks to Him.
I wanna let you all know that I love you very much, with all my heart. We always think that this kind of things will never happen to us, but they do. And they come when we expect it the least. So if I have one advise to give you, it is to live every day as if they were your last one, ‘cause you just never know. I wish we didn’t have to go through these really bad experiences to realize how wonderful life is and how great our friends and family are. We shouldn’t wait to be close to death to let people how much we love them.
I also have to let you know that the driver was drunk. I knew he had had a couple of drinks when I got into the car, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. He drinks all the time and I kinda got used to it. Plus he usually has very good control over himself. But I guess things are not always the way they seem. So I wanna give you another piece of advise. Don’t ever get into a car if you know that the driver has had a couple of drinks (or even just one). They might seem okay and in control, but you don’t know.
Ken also wanted us to lie to the police and tell them that the driver had driven off with other friends. His story didn’t make any sense because we didn’t know his name or anything about him. But I went with it. I lied because I was afraid that Ken would get back to me and hurt me for not protecting him. But then Jeremy called me on my cell phone and I told him what had happened and he convinced me to tell the police the truth because if they found out that I had lied to them (and they would), they could lock me up as well as Yulia and, of course, Ken. So I told them the whole truth. The cop who had been interrogating me, told me that he could lock me up right then because even though I was telling the truth then, I had lied to him before. But he let it go. I think he knew that I was telling the truth even though Ken and Yulia were still lying about it. The truth made much more sense that the lie. The police just know better, they have to deal with that all the time. I am so glad I made the right decision by telling them the truth. I wasn’t about to go down with them. Ken was the one driving and drinking. He was irresponsible and now he has to pay for his bad judgment. I am not gonna waste my time and my freedom for his bad decisions. So please, guys, think about it twice before you get into a car when you know that the driver has been drinking. It’s not worth it. Nothing is worth it.
So that is my story and I hope you will remember it if you are ever faced to the same or a similar situation. I just wanted to let you know about it because I thought that this could help you some day. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes when they can be avoided. After 3 days, I only have a really bad pain in the neck and the back, a few scratches, and a bunch of bruises on the arm. But people don’t always get this lucky. People die from drunk driving, good people. So just be careful and know that I love you with all my heart.
For some reason, I didn't write much about what happened after the ambulance took Ken and Yulia to the hospital. They only had some scratches and bruises, but they wanted to make sure that they were okay. I refused to go to the hospital because I knew I was fine. ANYWAY. I was stranded, so I called my brother to pick me up. He was hanging out with some friends when I called him, but he dropped everything he was doing to come and get me. When he saw the car, totaled, he was in shock. I think we grew closer from the experience. We realized that life is short, and that you can lose someone you really care about in the blink of an eye. It's really scary to think that you cannot see these things coming.
Today I am grateful for the Holy Ghost that prompted me to buckle myself. I am grateful that my life was spared that night. I am grateful for the things I have accomplished since then, including creating my own family. And I am grateful for the best brother I could have ever asked for. Sure we fought like crazy when we were kids, but as grown-ups, we're like best friends. I would do anything for him, and I know he feels the same way. I look up to him in so many ways, and today I am reminded that I need to communicate this to him more often. I love him dearly!
