Reflective Journal: The Car Accident

Sarah Santiago
Student ID# VT1501024
English2: Part 2 General (Revision B)
06 - Assignment 1_6

When I got into a terrible car accident last year, I thought it was the worse time in my life. Little did I realize that this experience would help me grow, and even inspire me – not despite the horrific nature of the event, but because of what happened. Most of the time when people go through huge things in life whether it’s good or bad, the outcome is them learning something from whatever happened. My accident has changed my life for the better and honestly I don’t regret having to go through that, I learned a lot from my accident, and it had huge impact on the way I viewed my life.

I and, two other friends were on our way to a party in Trenton, NJ, we were coming from the Bronx so it was going to take us about 2 hours to get there. My friend Jade was driving, I was in the passenger seat and Mikey was in the back seat. We were on the New Jersey turnpike and, we were looking for an exit that had a rest stop because Jades GPS device made us take the wrong turn and, we were kind of lost. While we were driving I saw a sign saying that there was a rest stop coming up in 5 miles, I took off my seat belt really fast because I wanted to reach over to the back to get something out my bag and, Mikey had taken a nap. In the mist of doing that Jade was switching lanes so she can already be on the side where you exit so she wouldn’t have trouble doing so when we got closer. She didn’t see a car getting on the turnpike so she didn’t bother to stop, the car ended up hitting my side of the car really hard forcing the car to turn on its side. When I woke up from blacking out, I was stretched over my friend Jade who was driving and my body was half way out of her window, Jade was still passed out and, Mikey was laid out in the backseat. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t even try to prepare for it.

I woke up in a hospital realizing I have all these machines around me, I had IV’s in both arms and I was in ICU. The doctors walked in to check if I was finally up, when he realized he immediately started to tell me what was going on with me. I had 4 fractured ribs, 10 stables in my head due to me cracking my head open, and a broken leg. Mikey didn’t really suffer too much, he had a couple of stitches on his, hand and arms. He also broke his wrist. Jade and I had it the worse, she also cracked her head open, broke two ribs and both her legs were broken. Due to my serious injuries I stood in the hospital for 3 weeks and, I had to go to therapy for my legs. Even though I only broke one leg being that I was bed bound for 3 weeks without getting up, I sort of forgot how to walk. My doctor told me that I’d have to be in therapy for 3 months minimum, I can be there longer if it’s necessary. The main thing I thought about while I was going through this is “Who knew that once I took off my seat belt, I would get into a car crash?” I just kept thanking God for giving me a second chance at life because that car accident could’ve taken my life, and it could’ve taken my friends life as well. I thought about what if it was worse, besides death I could’ve been paralyzed, I could’ve suffered a major head injury and ended up brain dead, so many things happened to me but I feel like I got the minimum.

Even though it wasn’t a case where the driver was drinking and driving, I learned a lot. I learned that it doesn’t matter what it is, never take your seatbelt off because it can definitely wait. Even though I’m not at fault of the car accident, I could’ve kept my seatbelt on and waited till we stopped at the rest stop maybe my injuries would’ve been even more minor and I didn’t have to spend 6 months of my life trying to get better. Even though that wasn’t the case I still learned to appreciate life a lot more, and I definitely don’t regret what happened. Somethings are life lessons and the car accident was one of them. However, I learned something way deeper than that, I learned to be more appreciative of life, and to be more grateful for my life. I thank God every single day because I believe he’s the one who had his guardian angels over that car so nothing to major happened. I’m so grateful for my friends, especially the ones I went through that with because we kept each other strong. There was days where I was in that hospital bed, crying my life away because of what happened but, then I thought about how I was alive and my friends are alive too, and that kept me strong, that kept me going.

Nobody ever wants to have bad luck or bad news and, when something does happen, it's natural to focus at first on the worst aspects, such as pain, injury, financial loss, and other consequences. But if we can try to remember that sometimes there is an important message to be learned when you least expect to, we can take something away from these unhappy events, and turn them into meaningful lessons from which we can grow. As for me I took the car accident I experienced and, took in the negative things that happened to me but, I also embraced all my positive outcomes. I’m alive and healthy, I’m still able to walk and, I don’t have a limp to me walk. My friends are alive and healthy and, the car accident didn’t affect my chances of enlisting into the army. Everything happens for a reason, and, though you may not know the reason right then and there, you’ll eventually find out and, for the most part whatever did happen whether it’s good or bad, you’ll definitely learn from your experience.