It was a school night, I had just finished my homework. I got into bed and fell sound asleep. I remember having a dream driving on a vacant road. Hearing the song Firework by Katy Perry on the radio as I started singing to the chorus. Seeing my little hands gripping the steering wheel just below my blaring bright lights. The smell of my yankee candle air freshener. Feeling the rush of the wind on my hair from the cracked window. Coming up to a two-way stop having the right of way, still proceeding at 45 mph. Looking to my left seeing a black truck going two times my speed, boom. All of sudden I got woken up vigorously. My mom saying “Kori, Kori, Kori, Kori.” I have never got woken up like this before. Still half asleep, my mom says “Kori, I think Morgan’s dead.”

In an instant going from half asleep and dozing off into the most awake and alert mood I’ve ever been in my life. The words slipped out of my mouth “No she isn’t.” I couldn’t help but to blurt it out it was too hard to hold it in. As my mom tells me Morgan got into a car accident that might have alcohol involved I was running around the house grabbing stuff shoving it into a bag. I had never been in a situation like this before, I didn’t know how to prepare. My heart rate going at a pace it has never gone before while stressing my whole life in my mind.

My told me to get my shoes on and hop in the car. Scariest moment of my life; cruising down the dirt road not knowing half of what had happened. Wondering to myself, who hit her? Was it a boy? Girl? How? Where? Where was she going? So many thoughts going through my head like cars on a expressway. Looking out the window starting to bawl my eyes out I couldn’t hold it in any longer. My mom reaching back to me rubbing my leg and whispers with a sad tone “Don’t worry Kori.” My dad saying he doesn’t care if he gets pulled over for speeding. Just thinking to myself how I don’t want my family to go through a tragedy and they really don’t deserve it. All I could think about is how much my family means to me.

Before you knew it we got to the hospital. Felt like it took five minutes but also felt like five years. Waiting in the parking lot for my aunt, waiting, and waiting. Finally, seeing my aunt and uncle pulling up. My aunt got out of the car, trying to hold back, forcing herself to think it’s going to be ok, but really thinking it’s not. All of the sudden she burst into tears and couldn’t stand up straight. We quickly walked her into the hospital. I remember vividly my aunt seeing people standing outside staring and her saying “What are they looking at!” Finally made it to the door ending up sitting in a room with an nurse. My aunt Debbie telling her “I want to see my daughter.” The nurse replied “She’s in an awful state for you to see.” This was so unbelievably heartbreaking to me. Just to think if I had a daughter I knew was going to pass and you couldn’t say goodbye.

They took my Aunt into another room as we were told to go in the waiting room. The constant thought in my head was how horribly this is going to go down in my family. All the hearts that will be broken and tears that will be shed. Honestly at that point I just felt like a mess. It was so awful to think of all the friends and family I was going to have to tell. Hours of sitting in the waiting room with my Mom, Dad, Aunt Jenny and cousins, crying and left wondering. Thinking to myself am I ever going to see Morgan again? Is this the end of her time? How will my family handle this?

Before we left the hospital that night we found out she had passed. I went home and laid in bed and couldn’t stop crying. I finally fell asleep I don’t know when but all I knew was that I was emotionally and physically drained. I remember waking up again and again throughout the night. I took about three days of school off. All my friends asking me where I was and if I was ok. All I wanted to do is yell at everyone even though I knew they didn’t know how it happened or how hard it was for me. My feelings and emotions hit me hard, harder than they’ve ever hit me. Everyone needs to really know and appreciate how much their family means and are to them, because I know I love mine unconditionally. They really are like no other.