I Have No Shame--Another Something I Have Blatantly Copied and Pasted from Same Forum
My freshman year of college I got into my first (and only thus far *fingers crossed*) accident. I was driving home from college for the first time for my little brother's birthday, and 30 minutes into the drive, I thought I was at a three-way stop T-intersection and accidentally pulled out in front of a truck (a semi stopped on my right after I did, and he was waiting to turn, and I mistook this as part of the 3-way deal). The truck hit my Toyota Camry right in the side, totaling it, and when I came to, I was being life-flighted to the hospital. For me, my car looked far worse than I did: I only had a fractured mandible, a bruised chest from my seatbelt, a big red left eye (from either the window or the airbag, I can't remember), and a 3rd degree concussion. I had different emotional issues that cropped up afterward from the ordeal, and my parents think I had slight PTSD for a few months. Today I'm okay, and I like to use the story as a means of telling to rather humorous stories that took place during the worst of it:
--When I came to in the helicopter, the first thing I did after cry a little bit was to wiggle my toes to make sure I hadn't broken my spine, and then the second thing I did was to check to make sure all my teeth were still in my head. I had 5 years of braces, and I was terrified all that time and effort might have gone to waste had I lost a tooth.
--The officials (either the policemen or the EMTs or someone--I don't remember) were able to call my mom as I was hurried off the to hospital because they salvaged my cell phone from the car, and I conveniently listed my mom as "Mom" in my address book.
--The staff in the emergency room had to cut off my shirt to take off a particular wired undergarment so they could x-ray me, and I was lucid enough to crack a joke about it. Ahem. "Be careful with that bra--it's my lucky one." And no, no one laughed, unfortunately. I guess the people working that day weren't big fans of dark comedy.
--My insurance sucked way hard afterward, but the blame for the accident was not put on my shoulders (though I definitely placed it there for quite a while after). Apparently, if you are an illegal Mexican immigrant without a driver's license and driving someone else's truck, things don't work out too favorably for you. Especially if you also don't happen to be wearing a seatbelt.
I don't say that last part to be funny. I just find it ironic that even though the wreck was basically all my fault, the bulk of the monetary and federal blame was put on the other party's shoulders because he made a mistake (and broke a couple laws) that required more forethought than my misinterpretation of a sign. The logic of the situation as my parents explained it to me (I was so not capable of logic at the time) was that if the man hadn't broken the law, he would not have been there at that place and time to have hit me. As I see it, if it weren't him, it would have been someone else I pulled out in front of, and in a really twisted way, I was lucky it was him and not a car with young children in it or an elderly person or something like that. The man survived the wreck, but because he didn't have his seatbelt on, his injuries were far worse than they could have been: he broke a leg, a couple ribs, and I don't know what else.
Anyway, I shared all this not to brag or to top someone else's story or to have a pity party. I share it because it was a very sobering event in my life and I learned a lot from it, and I hope others can take something away from it as well.
Other than that, I think with this one post I've used up all my way-too-serious forum talk for the year.
--When I came to in the helicopter, the first thing I did after cry a little bit was to wiggle my toes to make sure I hadn't broken my spine, and then the second thing I did was to check to make sure all my teeth were still in my head. I had 5 years of braces, and I was terrified all that time and effort might have gone to waste had I lost a tooth.
--The officials (either the policemen or the EMTs or someone--I don't remember) were able to call my mom as I was hurried off the to hospital because they salvaged my cell phone from the car, and I conveniently listed my mom as "Mom" in my address book.
--The staff in the emergency room had to cut off my shirt to take off a particular wired undergarment so they could x-ray me, and I was lucid enough to crack a joke about it. Ahem. "Be careful with that bra--it's my lucky one." And no, no one laughed, unfortunately. I guess the people working that day weren't big fans of dark comedy.
--My insurance sucked way hard afterward, but the blame for the accident was not put on my shoulders (though I definitely placed it there for quite a while after). Apparently, if you are an illegal Mexican immigrant without a driver's license and driving someone else's truck, things don't work out too favorably for you. Especially if you also don't happen to be wearing a seatbelt.
I don't say that last part to be funny. I just find it ironic that even though the wreck was basically all my fault, the bulk of the monetary and federal blame was put on the other party's shoulders because he made a mistake (and broke a couple laws) that required more forethought than my misinterpretation of a sign. The logic of the situation as my parents explained it to me (I was so not capable of logic at the time) was that if the man hadn't broken the law, he would not have been there at that place and time to have hit me. As I see it, if it weren't him, it would have been someone else I pulled out in front of, and in a really twisted way, I was lucky it was him and not a car with young children in it or an elderly person or something like that. The man survived the wreck, but because he didn't have his seatbelt on, his injuries were far worse than they could have been: he broke a leg, a couple ribs, and I don't know what else.
Anyway, I shared all this not to brag or to top someone else's story or to have a pity party. I share it because it was a very sobering event in my life and I learned a lot from it, and I hope others can take something away from it as well.
Other than that, I think with this one post I've used up all my way-too-serious forum talk for the year.