I know you have all read a million things on why you should not text and drive. Why you should wait to respond to that oh-so-urgent text message. You have watched the commercials of the unfinished messages and seen the outcome of the person on the other end of the vehicle that was not so lucky. But you still do it. You still can not resist to pick it up when you hear the chirp of your text tone.
So here is my reason why you should wait.
My cousin was only 19 years old when he lost his life because he was using his phone behind the wheel of the car in June 2011. Everyone in my small town knows Cody's story and knows the amazing person he was.
No one has ever heard my account of that summer night:
Someone called me to let my step dad and I know not to take a certain way home from work because there was a bad accident and traffic was horrible. I asked if they knew who it was ... they said they didn't. We continued on our normal route home disregarding the warning. We pulled up and saw my cousins car crushed in the center of main street. My aunt was screaming āHe's dead, he's dead" in the middle of a quickly growing crowd.
Confused and shocked, I stood there melting in with the swarm of strangers around me. My step dad reached in to hold her, and all I could do was stand and watch as if nothing was wrong. I'd never seen him cry before and I never did again after than one tear rolled down his face. I asked the woman next to me who died she said she did not know. Reassurance and hope that nothing was wrong washed over me ... that this could be a dream. Like a warm sensation from the top of my head to my toes I felt relief. I sat on the curb alone and people kept coming up to me crying asking if I was okay? With little emotion, I answered every passing figure with "yes everything is fine." My cousin's brother showed up to the scene and ran to me crying. I squeezed him in my arms and I proceeded to tell him āeverything is going to be okay" my voice starting to shake as he responded to me, āNo, it isn't." I knew it wasn't. I knew he was right. It wouldn't be okay, but yet, I still repeated myself over and over. Like maybe if I said it enough, it would be true.
So why is my story any different? Here is the catch, it isn't different. There are thousands of people that have experienced what my family experienced. All I can hope is that someone that reads this will think twice next time they are behind the wheel and their phone starts to vibrate. Maybe, just maybe, if Cody could have read something like this, he would still be here today.
This world lost an amazing person way too soon because he could not wait, and that is exactly why you should.
