Reality Check: Sunday Edition

Sunday seemed like as good a day as any other. I slept in, went shooting and had lunch with my dad and my wonderful girlfriend, with whom I spend the rest of the afternoon being lazy and enjoying her company. The time came for me to head back down to Moscow for the upcoming school week, so I got in my car and began heading south. What happened next happened incredibly fast. I was crossing an intersection when a car began to pull out in front of me, at which point I realized I had ran a red light. I hit the breaks as hard as I could and swerved to the left, only to find myself slamming directly into the front left side of a Chevy. Being that I wasn't harmed in any way, I quickly got out of my car to make sure everyone was okay. I discovered that the driver of the vehicle was a fifteen year-old girl on her permit, and her passengers were five other members of her family. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and police and paramedics were on the scene quickly. I hadn't been distracted by anything in particular, my mind simply decided to space out and ignore the light.

I got to Moscow later that night to find that two other college students my age, one being a high school classmate of mine, had gone off the highway on the way to Moscow that day and rolled over an embankment. Michelle Bonasera died at the scene and Andree Maxwell is at Sacred Heart Hospital in critical condition. This simply took my breath away, and it made me think for a long time about how incredibly lucky I was in my accident. If I didn't have the extra second to swerve left, I could have ended or severely changed the lives of 6 individuals. It is nothing short of a miracle that no one was harmed.

Driving is such a mundane task for many of us. It's something we do nearly every day and we don't often think twice about it, but on the road, somebody's life could change in an instant because of a seemingly small decision. The simple act of glancing at your phone, changing the song on your stereo or answering a text while driving could mean the difference between you seeing or not seeing that car swerving into your lane, or the kids using the crosswalk. Think hard before you decide to take out your phone or reach into the back seat while you're driving. Honestly, its not about your life, but the other people and families on the road that have so much to live for.

Life is a fragile thing, and this past Sunday made me realize it more than any other single day in my relatively short existence. My heart goes out to the families of Michelle and Andree. Nobody deserves to lose their lives at such a young age, with so much of a future ahead of them. We can't do anything to change what happened, but we can think twice before we decide to do some of the stupid things almost all of us are guilty of while driving.