It was a calm warming yet breezy summer night, when most kids are looking for plans to make or avoid being home. Which is exactly what had been the case for myself and three other close friends. All being at Morgan’s house in Lonsdale, scoping out each plan we could think to do for that night. Finally we had been convinced to go to a bonfire in New Prague. Haylee had offered to drive and that was that, everyone thought we would only be going to this bonfire and that would be it for the night. All of a sudden we had something completely shocking us, come up and this had changed the events for the evening completely around.

We all pile one by one into the car with Haylee driving, Morgan in the passenger set, along with Leah and I sitting in the back.  Being in no hurry we take a longer way to get to New Prague from Lonsdale when a sudden question came up “Haylee can you change the song?” as she did we all start to realize that we are no longer driving in a straight motion, we are headed for the ditch. “Haylee!” screamed Morgan because she was able to see what all was happening from sitting in the front seat, and to get her focused on the road again and not her phone. Panicked, Haylee cranks her wheel all the way to the left and we hit the loose gravel on the side of the road, making everything bumpy as if we were on some sort of ride. This gravel lead her overcorrection of the steering wheel leading us to a complete three sixty turn in the middle of the road. While turning and spinning it was like being on a rollercoaster, everything so fast our vision only lets us see all of the verdure we are about to hit in the ditch. It’s not over yet. Everyone in the car is distressed of not knowing how this is going to end. Having a recurring thought in my head thinking we were going to flip. Finally closing my eyes tight and squeezing the handle of the door with all my grip wanting it to end I look up and see that we are now in the other side of the ditch from before and I feel a jolt. With heads slamming back to the seats and seatbelts hugging our skin, we come to a stop in someone else’s yard pushed up against one medium sized tree. As we stumble out of the car with our bodies still in shock, we take a look around to see the damage that had be caused.

“Is everyone ok?” Haylee says frantically and you can hear the tears from beneath her breathe as they start to come crawling down her face.

Uninsured we all reply “yes.”

“I’m a little sore from the seat belt, but nothing is bad” Morgan says

“I am so glad we didn’t start to roll or that another car wasn’t coming at this time” Haylee states in relief.
Leah then suggest, “We should probably go tell the house owners that there is a car in their front yard.” 
We all get out of the car knowing we need to make a nervous walk up to the house of whose yard we just tore up and hit their tree. Getting to the door an older woman wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, probably in her late fifties answers the door, as we explain the actions of the accident she is more concerned about how we are and took everything very well. In fact the whole family was sitting at their dinner table and watched the whole thing happen. “All of a sudden I looked out of the window and there was a car in our ditch” said the daughter of the women with laughter in her voice.  It was now time to call for rides and get us out. Haylee’s dad was first one the list, angry the car was broken but glad no one was dangerously harmed. When her father with arrived everyone involved in the situation was included in a conversation about what we were going to do to get the car out because from hitting the tree it wouldn’t start. In the meantime I had to go and call another friend of ours to give the rest of us a ride, she didn’t believe us at first but once we told her it was actually real she panicked too come right away, knowing she had to be there for us to help us out. Thankful to have her come after a while of waiting to go to this bonfire. However, Haylee would just go home with her father because it was her car that had been damaged and he was not very happy about it.

After what I would call an hours wait and tears from us girls, we were able to get the car started, driven out of the yard and home where the mirror and side of the car could be fixed. As for the rest of us, we still went to the fire as planned. On our way we talked about what had just happened and were really fortunate to have everyone be ok. We also realized then at this moment how close it was going to make us as friends because we were all put into an uncomfortable and frightful situation. When we arrived people were shooting the question of “what took you guys so long?” We had to explain to them our reasoning of being later than thought. “You’re lying” everyone thought as well, but when it was come across true you could see the worry and reassurance in people’s eyes that we were alright. A while later I called my mom telling her what all had gone down and that Haylee, Morgan, Leah and I were fine and unharmed. The other girls proceeded to do the same thing as me and let everyone know we were not hurt. Seeing people so worried for you and making sure you are alright is a resource on not taking thing for granted, because you never know how severe something could be, or how unexpected things happen just within a matter of minutes.

To this day driving past that spot in the road where we once laid in the ditch still gives me the chills. Even though an accident is not something you would ever being wishing to happen, something good came from it for me that day, and that would be how you learn to be thankful for what you have. You never  know what could be taken from you or when for that matter. Not only did this car accident teach all of us the importance of not being on your phone or distracted with anything while driving, but how close it brought us together. We realized this from being on our way back and just simply talking about it with each other. It has changed our lives since then because of this impact it gave us to not take things for granted and we all are well aware to be there for eachother from now on. Who knew a car accident could cause that much of a change in who you are.