Close your eyes and think of a moment in your life that you regret.

Why do you regret it? Could it have been avoided? Did that regret only affect you or did it hurt someone else in the process? Are you able to live with it or does it haunt you every morning you wake up? If you could go back in time, then what would you do differently?

After being able to finally think clearly, these are the questions I would ask to the drunk driver who could have completely transformed or even scarier, ended me and one of my best friend’s lives this past Saturday. I will always wonder what his answers would be, but for all, I know he could have learned nothing from this occurrence and is out on the road drunk again to risk his and someone else’s life.

A part of me wanted to feel sorry for him at first. Maybe he had a hard day at work, maybe someone had just broken his heart or maybe he had some underlying problem that not even I could predict. I like to think the best of him. Yes, I know this man could have killed me, but I still want to think the best of him. Why is that? Am I crazy for finding a reason to forgive or find the goodness in someone who made a decision that was intended to hurt me?

I am usually bad at speaking vocally about personal situations. I will insecurely make light of it with jokes or laughs, but I can only truly express my traumatic life situations through writing. But I mean hey, everyone chooses to expose his or her vulnerability differently. As much as accepting them might scare, haunt hurt, or completely expose you, it’s good for you.

Flashback to three weeks ago, I went on my first client lunch for my internship. The conversation, ironic now, came up about the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. I sat there pathetically trying to muster up something to say, but getting asked that question is the first time out loud I truly realized that so far in my life, I had been fortunate enough to have very few hard moments come to mind. It’s a rare case for a world that can deal out so many endless obstacles.

Ask me the question now and I wouldn’t have to hesitate. The accident. You can probably think about five movies at the top of your head that involve a life-changing car accident. The sound, the lights, the sirens and the rest of the movie revolve around the altering events that follow.

I always like to think that the things in the movies or on the news won’t happen to me. But, after witnessing this devastation firsthand I know I can’t be naïve to that mindset anymore. Sure, I can remain optimistic and not create anxiety that every moment will end badly, but at the same time, I now have a newfound realism and acceptance that these things do happen. And when they do you have to be ready for them.

Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 1:15 a.m.

The night of the accident was just like any other. I was in a great mood after finishing a long week at the internship I’m absolutely in love with. I try to live without worry on a daily basis, and that day was just one of those worry-free, happy-go-lucky days.

I was visiting one of my best friends from college who lives only about an hour and a half away from me. A night filled with laughs and embarrassing dance moves quickly took a turn for the worse within seconds, but I couldn't have survived the following events without her.

Based on smart college life habits, we decided to take Uber vehicles all night instead of driving ourselves. We were so excited about our four-minute pickup time and didn’t even hesitate to order our ride making sure we didn’t waste one second catching it on time. You never know what driver you’re going to get but, usually, they have a funny story to tell about their time “Ubering” or just an eccentric life story. We got to know our driver a little bit, but nothing past surface level, as the conversation, eventually turned into my friend and I talking in the back seat. We were safe, right? We were responsible, got an Uber and nothing could go wrong, right?

The next few moments happened within less than 10 seconds, but to me, they felt timeless. I watched her fingers moving back and forth excitedly making our next plans with a few simple words as she presses “send” lifting her head looking up to make sure our driver was going the right direction. My neck completely turned to face her as we sit in the back seat laughing at our night thus far. I watch as the message loading bar reaches halfway until it is sent. It was both of our first times out that entire summer. Our seatbelts were both on snug, again just another mindless habit. Her head completely lifted at this point, phone falling to the floor. Sent. The laughs turned to complete silence, not screams, just silence. My neck whiplashed forward and my teeth bite down on my tongue with an indescribable force. My seatbelt pulls be back into reality, but only because it felt as though someone was strangling me.

In this very same moment I lost control of all my senses and my mind focused on one thing: my family. My two beautiful twin sisters who I had just woken up at 5 a.m. to make sure I got to say goodbye to them before their big service trip to Costa Rica. For some reason that morning, I felt the need to wake up three hours before work to make sure I said goodbye. In addition to my two overly loving and trusting parents who took me out to a special lunch during my one hour off of work and sent their best wishes for my weekend. In that moment, those four people were the only things that came to my mind as I felt nothing but a racing heart. My family still had the ability to make it through to my emotionless heart.

The lights, smoke, skid sounds and pain were all a flash. As if someone was taking a picture in the dark of the night. A flash was all. Followed by the typical smoke and sirens -- yes, the movies do a pretty decent job of replicating this type of a scene if you were wondering or ever questioned Hollywood’s authenticity.

It wasn’t the accident itself where I actually got to think, as you can imagine the tears and emotions clouded my thoughts a little. Or maybe it was the fact that I was sitting on the side of an empty highway, unsure of how I was getting home, watching the vehicle I was just a passenger in get loaded onto a tow truck as multiple officers interrogated me. As the other drunk driver and passenger who had just hit us were sitting as far away from us as possible, not making eye contact, not apologizing. Either they were too drunk, scared or I hate to say it, but they might have not even cared. It was later that night and the days to follow where I have actually been able to take a step back and internally analyze this “flash.”

No blood, no broken bones, no deaths. You all may move on with your lives after sending me a text of condolence. You may also stop reading once you find out my best friend and I walked away from this accident with nothing but two completely totaled cars and a few bruises. But you shouldn’t. You shouldn’t because we were just lucky, more like blessed, in a case where most victims are not.

My purpose of writing such an in-depth article isn’t to bore, concern or make you pity us. It’s to inform you. This is all coming from the most typical 20-year-old, college student who hasn’t gotten in a single accident her entire life. In 2014 Mother’s Against Drunk Driving found that 9, 967 people died in drunk driving related crashes.

That number could have been 9, 969 after that night, but would it have really made a difference in your heads? For some reason, people will continue to drink and drive because they have gotten away with it every time before. All it takes is one time. Numbers are meaningless, which is why I decided to openly share my story. This is a single story. That means there are at least just under 10,000 stories like mine within just one year -- and those ended in death.

Please, please take my word for it and don’t get behind the wheel. I am a very close friend to people who have either driven drunk or gotten in the car with someone who has been driving. We all think we are limitless. Don’t risk adding to the statistic. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to live with a regret. We all have families, friends, jobs and a life worth living. A single person has an affect or connections with hundreds of other people outside of just themselves; so in essence, you don’t even realize how you may be changing people all over the world with one avoidable decision.

Before making a decision like the driver above, whose name I don't even know, ask yourself these questions:

Would you regret it?

Could it be avoided?

Will it only affect you or will it hurt someone else in the process?

Will you be able to live with it or will it haunt you every morning you wake up?

You won't have the chance to go back in time, but you do have the chance to change it before you regret it. So, for the sake of every driver out there, it’s simple. Just delegate it, don’t do it.