"At the end of the day, you're fine, and he's fine. It's just metal."
Friday, April 6, 2018, around 5:15 p.m. I got into a car accident. It was my first one, and I was in disbelief. I rear-ended the guy in front of me and immediately felt terrible about it. I called my insurance company to file a claim, and the lady on the other end of the line said the words above to me. They have stuck with me since that day. The words were meant to be about cars, but they can actually be about so much more than just the vehicles we drive.
One of the things people learn about me right off the bat is that overthink and worry about everything. If something isn't going my way, I worry. If someone says something to me that I don't quite understand what they meant by it, I overthink. It's just in my nature, and it's in many others' too. Us humans tend to worry and overthink on a regular basis, and after what the lady said to me, I've realized it just isn't worth it.
"At the end of the day, if you're fine, and he's fine, it's just metal."
Everyone has different types of "metal," and we all too often let it cloud our vision in life. If something is going badly for us, we tend to make it a much bigger deal than it might actually be.
Maybe you get a bad grade on a test, but you're freaking out about the bad grade so much that you forget you can replace that test with the final exam.
Or perhaps your friend cancels big plans the two of you have together, and you're too upset about it to congratulate them on the fact that they're canceling the plans because of a wonderful opportunity they had come about.
That day, my "metal" was truly metal - I hurt this innocent man's car. I wasn't thinking about the big picture. He wasn't hurt, and neither was I. Yes, his car has a dent now. Yes, my insurance will go up.
But we're okay.
There will be many more times in my life (and everyone else's) where something happens and we want to focus on the bad. We want to concentrate on the "metal" that is keeping us from fully enjoying life. But I think these words of advice from the insurance lady are a reminder to keep our focus on the big picture and to remember what's really important.
So thank you, lady from my insurance company for helping me remember that even if the "metal" of life is seriously messed up, as long as everyone is okay, then it's truly just metal.
