January 8th, 2017 was a day I will never forget the rest of my life. I woke up that morning and was packing my clothes, T.V, and all my shoes into my car to head back to Western Michigan University and start my second semester the next morning. As I finished packing, my mom had made us breakfast and I was thinking to myself " Man i'm gonna miss all these home cooked meals when I go back to Kalamazoo". After having breakfast, I got a few more things from my bedroom and said my goodbyes to my mom, sister, and stepdad. I always hate goodbyes to anyone but family is always hard especially when I was home for 3 weeks and felt like I was getting so close to them.

As I was driving back to Kalamazoo, I listened to music and was just honestly thinking how blessed I really am. I was thinking about how I'm starting to value things more and how that is starting to make me. I also was thinking about how I'm going to continue to keep being humble, kind and keep growing as a person. Then my mom's song for me came on the radio, " My Wish - By: Rascal Flats" and it kinda make me cry a little i'm not gonna lie. It made me wanna keep making her proud.

I was about 2 minutes from getting off at my exit for school when my life flashed before my eyes. I was in the right lane on the highway, with a car and semi ahead of me when I decided to get over in the passing lane to pass them. As I got over I noticed that the person driving behind that semi was on their phone and not really paying full attention. I went to speed up to pass them and as I did they merged over and did not see me. To my left of the highway was a cement wall and a small patch of road but it was covered in snow. As the car cut me off, I slowed down and merged off the road a little bit so I didn't hit the car. As I did this, my car did not get hit however, I did hit the snow and lost control. I went to get back fully on the road and the snow sent my car spun a few times and hit that cement wall head on. I blacked out for a few seconds and felt like my life was over, almost as if I was gonna die. I looked up and seen cars flying in my direction and I was scared. I began to see flashes of memories in my life where I was the happiest and this scared me.

A man then walked up to me and helped open my door and asked if I was okay and I tried to respond and say yes but words didn't come out at first and so I tried again and said yes as loud as I could. He then told me to move to the side of the highway and he called the police and told me he would be back in a second. As the man walked away I heard a raspy voice in my head say " It's not your time to go yet Ced, you still got big things to do". It was my Coach Quincy talking to me. It was his way of telling me that God and him wrapped their arms around me and stopped me from being dead or seriously injured in that crash.

I called my mom shook up and in fear and told her what had happen and I could hear the fear in her voice when she said she was on her way. As I waited for her and my stepdad to get there, my uncle and younger cousins came to stay with me till they got there and help me calm down because they live close to where it happened. My mom and stepdad then arrived shortly and I just gave my mom a big hug and started crying. We then unloaded my car full of clothes and other things for school, and put them all in her truck. Shortly after the tow truck showed up and hooked my car up and in that moment I started crying harder. I was more upset and hurt that it happened in that moment then actually feeling physically hurt, but that is because my body was in shock. As they pulled off to take my car away, we headed to the hospital.

I arrived and they put me in a neck brace that made it so I could not move my head at all pretty much. They hooked me up to a heart monitor to make sure my heart was okay because I was born with a heart condition. I had a CT Scan done and the results came back with no broken bones luckily. I was only in the hospital for a few hours and they told me that I was very lucky, and to stay in bed for a few days.

At the end of the day, I was still alive and responsive. I truly believe that maybe my car accident happen for a reason. What reason ? I have no clue, but it almost felt as if it was my way of starting a new life in a way. My life after my crash has to be my second life, one where I need to make the most of because my life very easily could have been taken away in that moment, but it wasn't my time yet. I'm blessed to walk away from a tragedy like this, because it continues to feed me with positive motivation.