During the ride back home from camping in Pennsylvania, the only thing for me to do was to stare out the window at the passing cars. The only thing without retrieving my bag, which would have been easy considering I was sitting in the seats in front of the Trailblazer’s trunk, where my family and I kept most of our personal items during the vacation. I did not because in my eleven year old mind, unbuckling was a death wish. Being grateful to even be there in the first place, I did not complain and was content with not having much to do.

Although the clear blue sky and green grass of the heightening mountain we were on were quite nice to looks at, they were not all that interesting to watch. I started to look around the car to find out what my family was doing. My father was driving, my mother was on the phone, my sister was reading, and my brother was sleeping. As I looked around, I noticed that something was wrong. There was a heavy feeling floating in the air, a feeling of anxiousness and fright.

My father was starting to panic because he was losing control over the trailer that was attached to the back of the car. Once a bit of control was lost, it was difficult to be regained because slowing down would cause the trailer to sway back and forth even more, and speeding up to regain control would have just included other drivers in on the danger.

Even though my young self did not fully comprehend the severity of the situation, I instinctively knew that it was dangerous enough that I grabbed my pillow as a protective measure and held onto it as if it was the last thing I would ever do. While I waited for the moment of impact, I hoped for dear life that everything would turn out okay in the end.

As the trailer pushed us down the sloped road, control the situation decreased rapidly. Eventually the trailer was swaying so much that we were driving between three lanes of the highway and no other cars dared to drive even remotely close to us. Within the next minute, we crashed into the plain concrete road barrier on the left side of the road that separates the directions of traffic. The force of the impact caused many of the loose objects to rush towards the front of the car. The trailer finally came to a halt when it crashed into the back of the car, thankfully it did not break through or else I would have been killed in an instant.

After the crash, my mother tells us three kids to scavenge the busted up car for most of our stuff, at least what survived of our stuff. Depressing as it was that both the Trailblazer and the trailer were most certainly totaled past repair, I was able to maintain a positive attitude because nobody was hurt at all.

I overheard my mother sounding quite shocked and upset by what just happened as she asked, “Now what do we do?” Unlike myself, my mother was not very appreciative of the good parts of life, she rather held onto many of the rotten moments instead of moving past them.

Obviously unsure of how to feel, my father replied, “Out of the few options that are available, the most reasonable option is to call a tow company to take care of the car and the trailer and also to hope that a passing car stops to help us get somewhere.”

So my family and I waited for the next half an hour or so for the towing company and for some kind person to stop to help us. None of my other family members were as glad as I was, they were all still gloomy from the losses of the crash. I tried to lighten the mood by talking about other things and joking with them but nothing really seemed to work. I did not feel so miserable about what did happen yet I was thankful that what could have happened did not happen.

From then on, I would always try to look on the better side of situations, even if what happened was absolutely dreadful.