December 6, 2012. I was seventeen years old and had my license for exactly 364 days. I had spent that afternoon with my best friend. We had gone to the mall to shop for dresses for our winter dance, which was just two days away, and had grabbed some dinner. After dropping her off, I continued on my way home. I was singing along to the radio and paying close attention as I was on a road that I didn't travel on much at night and then it hit me.
Well, more like she hit me. A woman who had been talking on her phone and driving down way too fast on a side road, sped through a stop sign and t-boned my car, sending me into the other lane of traffic and onto the sidewalk. It all happened so quickly and next thing I knew I was alone and on the side of the road bawling my eyes out and trying to figure out what to do.
I didn't even have my license for a full year and I had managed to get in a pretty awful wreck. Immediately following the crash, I was worried about all the inconvenience- of my family having to drive across town to come get me, having to bring me to the hospital, having to call my lawyer, having to deal with the police, and so much more.
After the car crash, I was in physical therapy for almost a year. I had such severe whiplash that my spine was misaligned. I got migraines every day for almost six months. I could barely focus on my school work and keeping up with my friends and life was so difficult because I was in so much pain. The worst pain though was the emotional distress I had because of my wreck.
Three years later, I still suffer from that horrible incident. My sense of security has forever been tampered with. I have a hard time trusting others to drive me (it took me almost a year to get over this and I'm still picky about it to this day), if I am ever faced with any "close call" incidents it can send me into full blown panic, and I am scared every time I get in a car. Slowly but surely, I am working on every fear, but deep down, I face a lot of difficulties because of what happened to me.
The woman who hit me couldn't stop apologizing. I wanted to say it was okay, but I knew she was in the wrong and this simply was not a small accident. An accident is something that you cannot avoid... it just happens. It's such a habit to call car crashes "accidents", but most of the time they could have been avoided. Drunk drivers, distracted drivers, they're all to blame.
I'm telling my story to urge people of all ages to avoid driving "distracted". Don't text and drive, don't look away for even a moment. That one single moment could change you or someone you don't know forever. Although I had been in a bad accident before this, being the driver in this situation changed my life and will always haunt me. At 17 years old I was afraid to drive, but I had to get up every day to do it... I had to take medicine just to make the migraines bearable... I spent hours in physical therapy that could've been spent studying...all because of a car crash that could have so easily been avoided. Think before you act, your actions affect more people than you realize.
