Golden Mile
Click to viewI wonder if one ever gets over an accident. It doesn't effect everyday life so much as it does the simple little things. I tense up when I use cruise control or take a sharp turn. I grip the steering wheel slightly too hard when it rains and if I have to slam the brakes quickly. I notice when other cars get too close to my lane. Sometimes I shudder thinking about spinning out of control.
When I was a kid I loved racing on go carts. My family used to travel the country frequently and everywhere we went I'd get to race the go carts. I'd been on all sorts of tracks simple ones, ones that looped into the air, and some that twirled up stories high. I think I was in Colorado racing on a simple stretched circle track. That was when I got over confident. I felt I was going too fast and if I just scraped against the tire wall, outlining the inside of the circle, I would slow down a bit... because you know hitting the brake would be too easy. I must have gotten the idea from playing racing video games. When your car hits the grass median or slightly touches the wall it would slow the vehicle down... it's really the only way i can justify those thoughts. However, flying down the track at full speed and then barely touching the tire median causes a different reaction than I expected as a child. It completely stopped my go cart and I spun out control. If it hadn't been for my seat belt I would of had more than a huge gash in my neck. I would have been most likely thrown out of my go cart and probably would have gotten ran over. Even though I was able to get back into my go cart and finish the race I don't think I've been go cart riding much since then.
When I hydroplaned and spun out of control in the company car I remember the mud covering the windshield where I couldn't see what was going on or where I would end up. I remember trying to brace myself for when the car flipped over and thinking "whelp I'm it's passenger now." I slammed on the brakes because it was the only thing I could do to feel in control... even though that made it worse probably. It wasn't even a "Jesus take the wheel" moment. It was peaceful and slow motion like I knew I'd be ok even though I was thinking the outcome would be far worst.
When I was really young my cousin and I both sat on a swing in my grandparents yard. It was a huge swing, each leg hurdled over concert. We would start swinging by pushing it as far back as our legs could reach and then lift our legs up of the ground and ride it forward. then we'd pump our legs in sync trying to get it to reach the sky. We heard a noise and then floated to the ground. The noise was the arch and legs falling around us as we drifted back to earth. We looked around and then looked at each other. How did we not feel anything? Why didn't we get hurt? It was one of those moments.
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