I'm a full-time student, I have two jobs on campus, I'm part of a literary society, three on-campus organizations, a loving daughter, a loving friend, a loving sister, a loving aunt, and I fell asleep behind the wheel.

It was a typical Thursday night in the Nancy and Aja residents. I had just gotten back from working out and decided to take a nap. I woke up to a text from one of my favorite cousins, Rita. She asked me if I was coming home for my grandparents memorial Mass. And that was when it hit me. I had completely forgotten about my grandparents. I felt as if all the things people were saying about how I’ve changed were true. Because let’s be real, the old me would have never forgotten something so important and I did. There in the immediate moment I decided that I would be going home Friday afternoon. On average, going home can take me three to four hours so I never look forward to that drive. I went to my four classes starting as early as 8 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m. I got into my car and made my way home. I was excited to see my family and to simply be home. I was two hours into my drive when I started to become tired, so I started to sing.

The road was empty and the sun was setting. I was keeping my car pretty cold because I thought that would help me stay up. I told myself, as I kept yawning, that I would stop at the next rest stop but I never made it. Like the blink of an eye my eyes closed shut and my car drifted to the side of the road. The front right side of my car hit the ramp. I instantly reacted, braked, and turned the wheel. Because of my overcorrection, it caused the back left side of my car to hit the ramp as well. In the split second I witnessed my whole life. I parked off to the side of the road to see the damages and it was bad. But what striked me the most was that I wasn't scared because I almost died, I was more scared of what my father was going to say when he saw my car. I began to panic and so I called the two people that I always call; the first one was willing to help with whatever I decided to do, and the second one told me to call my mother because she would know what to do. I trusted my gut and called my mother and as soon as she answered I began to break down. But once again, I realized it wasn’t the trauma from the accident that was making me break down, it was me worrying about all the damages I caused to my car.

This is the moment when my mother taught me one of the most important lessons in my life. She said “Life's too short to worry about the fixable. You must worry about the unfixable”. The car was still driveable so I continued my drive home. As I was driving home, I had time to reflect on what had just happened. I started to notice that most of the roads didn't have a ramp. And then I started to think “what if the ramp hadn’t been there?” And that’s when it hit me. “I should have died.” But, yet again, the unknown had put that ramp there to catch me from drifting off the road and flipping over. When I got home everyone seemed pretty upset about the accident but my mother seemed so happy to see me. I've learned that every minute in life is a blessing and we need to start treating it more like a blessing. I will never get behind the wheel if I am not feeling well no matter what is happening. Because I could have taken someone away with me. I didn't and for that I am extremely thankful.