I vividly remember sitting and laughing with my friend Bridgette Phillips as we were heading back from a visit to see my sister at Salisbury University. My mother, in the driver’s seat, was casually having a conversation with her best friend who was in the passenger seat. It was around 9:15 PM, and the rain was starting to pour down. We had almost made it home, when suddenly a car smashed the front of our car in full speed. From then on, everything was in slow motion, and I remember thinking, “I don’t want to die.”

    Often times, people don’t appreciate the life they have until they’ve experienced something that forces them to reflect. Life-changing experiences, mistakes, and struggles are what shape us as people to become who we are.  After the car hit my mom’s Sienna, I remember my friend Bridgette falling on top of me and flying to the other side. I was on the left side and had fallen into the space that’s in-between the driver’s seat and my seat. Bridgette started screaming, and I remember screaming for my mom. I couldn’t bear to see my best friend of 16 years flying around. I grabbed onto her leg as she was screaming. My back was constantly hitting the back of my seat. Suddenly, the spinning stopped, and I got up.

    The moment I looked up from the position I was stuck in, the car drove straight into a fence. There was a hill beyond the fence, and we were going on full speed down the hill towards the apartments that lay beneath it. At that moment, I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even react to the constant screaming of my best friend, calling my name, and my mother who so bravely was taking control of the steering wheel and struggling to keep us all safe in a car that had lost its control. It was a scary moment, getting up and seeing the car go straight for an apartment, never mind the fact that the car felt like it was about to flip. The car hit the building and came to a stop.

    That’s when I unfroze. My mother, screaming for help, was holding onto her arm. Bridgette’s mother was holding onto her knee and calling for her daughter who was laying there completely shaken up, crying and screaming.  I remember a man of the neighborhood running in the car and taking the keys out. Many people had come out to help us, and the man dragged Bridgette car whose legs and arms were bruised from the car. I, with adrenaline hitting me ,and disregarding the pain screaming from my back, got up and helped my mother and Ms. Paula. I helped out as much as I could, not realizing how tragic the situation really was. It wasn’t until I was in the ambulance, helping my best friend calm down, that I realized how serious this was.

    As a little child, I had always wanted to ride in an ambulance. It’s often portrayed as a cool thing. What seemed like hours only lasted for a minute. But that experience was probably the longest minute of my life.  Life is a precious gift that people often forget to cherish. As cliché as that sounds, it can’t be any more true. I was so blessed to go through an accident so tragic and come out with only bruises and injuries that weren’t life threatening. As a driver now, I’m more cautious. As a person, the idea that anything can happen at any moment is more real to me now more than ever. You never know what could happen when you walk out the door.  Why stress about high school drama when there are far more important things in life? Why get angry at someone for something tiny when you never know what will happen in the future? This experience, although scary, has made me realize to always embrace the moments I have with friends and family time because I never know what may happen.