Life can be an amazing experience, but just as quickly and easily as it is created, it can be erased. Just like that, one life gone and other lives forever affected by the tragedy. Sometimes though, these tragedies can be prepared for and averted. 

Car accidents are never something that the person involved thinks will happen to him or herself. My family and I were the same way. One day on our way to my grandparents’ large white house in Spencerville, Ohio. We were the usual unsuspecting victims of a very fortunate car accident that could’ve turned out to be much worse. Like any other family, we attempt to schedule some sort of gathering for whatever holidays that we can. We often take a trip to my grandparents’ house for Easter. Coming from a christian family, Easter carries more importance than others.

 I recall it vividly. It was about one o’clock when we loaded the car with what seemed like the whole house and took off out of the driveway. We went to church, and everyone seemed pretty exhausted from the week prior. In fact, right after we left the driveway I remember stating, “I’m lying down,” I put in my white earbuds and fell asleep on the rough leather interior of the door. When I say, “asleep” I mean asleep, I tend to sleep like a hibernating bear, but when I woke up life wasn’t going as well as it was when I had fallen asleep. Dreaming of the aroma of slow cooked Easter ham and mashed potatoes, I could hear my Grandpa exclaiming like always, “Let’s eat!” I was unaware the my dreams would come to a screeching halt.

 My father stopped at a four-way stop, and it became his turn to go. The green car across the intersection apparently thought it was his turn to leave the stop sign at the same time as my dad. He could not have been more wrong. Driven by two college age kids, nineteen and twenty, the car’s music functioned as a barrier between the driver and the passenger. It caused the driver to miss the passenger’s warning of the oncoming car. “Stop!” the passenger shouted. I awoke to the feeling of a massive thud and the sound of squealing tires. My dad attempted to evade the collision by veering all the way into the left lane, but there was no way to avoid it. Luckily, I had my seatbelt on because I would have been tossed all the way across the car. We were hit on the passenger’s side of the car in between the two doors of our white suburban. My mother and I were sitting right on the other side of those two white doors. If the door of the car wouldn’t have been as well made and we could have both been seriously injured, possibly worse. My sister then asked, “Cameron, are you ok?” 

I snapped out of my brief haze and responded to my sister, “Yeah, yeah I’m ok.” It shocked me, blurry eyed and barely awake, how quickly my life could have changed so drastically. My father, sporting an angry grin and aggressive tone of voice, trudged over to the much more damaged vehicle of the two who caused the accident. At the time I didn’t understand my dad’s sheer anger. I mean it was just a car, right? When he arrived back into our thrashed car, he started to ramble on about how stupid the other driver was and how bad it could’ve been if it would’ve happened differently. I then began to grasp the importance of cherishing every moment a person has because it is unknown how many moments the person may have left.