When I was
14 years old, I got into a four wheeling accident while on a hunting trip up
north with my dad. I was racing David, one of my friends that also had a cabin
up there. A friendly competition turned into a very dangerous situation when we
hit a sharp turn. He had a lot more experience than I did because he lives out
in Armada and can ride ATVs all day. So when he hit the turn he was fine, but
when I came up to it I didn’t give myself enough time to break and complete the
turn so I crashed into an area with a bunch of little trees. It all happened so
fast and I tried to brake as quickly as I could but I plowed straight into one
of the bigger trees and knocked it completely over. The scariest part was that
I had my other friend, Thomas, sitting in the four-wheeler with me. I really
could have hurt both of us. I had scratched the area right between the inner
corner of my eye and my nose. It was bleeding pretty badly. My dad came running
over to us and asked if I was alright. I said that I was fine but he knew that
I wasn’t. I was so upset that I had made such a horrible and dumb mistake. I
couldn’t stop thinking of how much worse things could have been and it didn’t
help when my dad took me inside to clean up my scrape because when I saw it I
broke out into tears. I thought, “What have I done to myself?” and “I can’t go
back to school looking like this, everyone will stare.” After my dad calmed me
down and I talked to my mom I realized how thankful I was to have only gotten a
scrape where I did, because I could have been blinded in that eye if it was
just a little bit closer.
If I could write myself a letter and
read it right before I got on the four-wheeler, I would prepare myself for the accident,
not try to stop it from happening. I try to live my life with no regrets and
learn from my mistakes. When something bad happens or I do something wrong I
try my best to learn a lesson and not let it happen again. Some things in life
though, you have to learn the hard way in order to truly understand a lesson.
This accident has made me a better and more cautious driver on the road in
general and I wouldn’t change it. In my letter I would say,
First of all, you need be more
careful and think before you do things so that you can make good decisions.
Secondly, you are going to learn a very important lesson today, but learning it
the hard way will help you in the future. Also, always appreciate all that you
have because you never know when you’ll be just inches away from losing
something that you take for granted. After what happens to you today, you need
to be very positive and just be thankful that nothing worse happened.
Don’t worry about the “what ifs” and what other people think, because that
stuff doesn’t matter. Lastly, thank mom and dad for everything and being there
for you, they will continue to love and support you a lot in the future.
Preventing this accident could have happened with a simple ease on the breaks like you said. Having someone else with you on the four wheeler is pretty scary because you have both your lives in your hands. Just being cautious of the things you do when your life and someone else's is at risk. You handled the situation well in my eyes, because like you said things could have been way worse than a scratch. Being thankful that you and your friend ended up being okay after that crash. None of you ended up with major injuries which was great. Thinking before you do anything will help every situation. You dealt with the incident very well.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that you would write a letter to yourself preparing you for this accident instead of trying to prevent it. I think that your letter to yourself is very nice. It is true that a lot of people take things for granted until they are gone. This letter gives good advice to be thankful for what you have and to be thankful for people, like your parents, that love and support you. I think you did a nice job writing a letter to yourself to give advice for when the accident would occur instead of trying to prevent it.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you said that you would prepare yourself for the accident and you would not change what happened. i think the approach you took for the letter to yourself was neat. Living life and learning from mistakes is important. I like how you said that the accident has made you a safer driver and that you are thankful that nothing worse happened.
ReplyDelete