By Elisa Byrdsong
Staff Writer
My totaled car at the impound lot after the accident on 5-3-08.
Photo by Nicole Byrdsong.
“Live every day like it’s your last.” This quote is easier said than done, and what does it really mean? On May 3, 2008, just 21 days before my 19th birthday, I lived the day that could have been my last, and learned exactly what it meant.
Like most people, I have witnessed many accidents on the news and heard many different tragic, fatal stories of people -- not only teens -- who have lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes. Of course, also like most people, I never thought that I would be a victim of such an incident.
My mother would always warn me to be careful on the road but I would simply reply, “Okay!” and jump behind the wheel. I understood that the chances of an accident were somewhat possible because I was constantly driving, but I considered myself a cautious driver and always obeyed the rules of the road. Had I been aware of the U.S. statistics that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15-20 year olds, I may have realized that my chances were more than probable.
However, it seems there was no stopping the events that took place this one, life-changing evening:
My intent of the night was to enjoy it with friends, as I stowed three of them in the car with me. I drove the four of us down the short familiar stretch of highway, aware of my exit approaching. Driving 60 mph, I passed the big green billboard displaying three-quarters of a mile left to exit. Suddenly I felt great impact from the rear of the vehicle and I automatically knew something wasn’t right. I had been hit by something fast and hard from behind and I didn't even see it coming.
I quickly grasped the wheel in a futile attempt to control the car on the narrow highway. I could feel the vehicle spinning as if I was on an uncontrollable merry-go-round that would never cease. As I caught a glimpse of the little blue car that had hit us, my car smashed face first into the guardrail and began flipping in the air. I thought for sure this was the end.
After I was knocked unconscious from the impact of the airbag slamming into my face, I violently landed on the roof of the car, and started regaining consciousness. Yelling and screaming was the last thing I remembered as I awoke... dangling upside down from my seat belt in the dark.
“Lisa get out of the car! Come on wake up!” I could hear my friend demanding.
As I began to realize what had happened, I released my seat belt -- which was holding me, trapped upside down in the car -- and I dropped painfully on my head as it unbuckled. Once I heard the voice of my friend I knew that at least one of the passengers in my car had survived. Praying for every one’s safety, I crawled out of the overturned car in the middle on Route 8 and feared the worst.
Thankfully, the four of us survived. But realizing how close my friends and I came to death instilled the fear of driving in me. Even though I was lucky to have survived the horrible crash with minor cuts and scratches, I was scared to even sit in a car -- better yet be behind the wheel of one again.
As months went by, the swelling, back pain and nightmares of the accident went away, but I still remained petrified to get behind the wheel. I had not been to work in months and I started to get behind on bills; I knew this couldn’t last forever.
“You have been given a second chance and it wasn’t to sit around and be afraid! Make something out of your life, most people don’t live to talk about something like that! But you did,” my great-grandmother said to me, as she lay in the hospital bed sick from cancer.
Those words coming from her as she lay there helpless, knowing that her days were limited and yet still positive -- that gave me the courage I needed to work on my fears of driving and to get on with my life. It was at that moment I realized that I had a purpose in life, and that I was just beginning the journey to finding it.
How can I sit home for months feeling helpless and miserable for myself? I’m alive! A little scrapped up and scared but I’m here. And for what? To sit in the house laying in bed all day? Wasting my life on re-runs of Lilo and Stitch on Disney Channel?! This couldn’t be why I was granted the opportunity to walk away from something millions of people die from every day!
Looking at my great-grandmother laying there, hair white as snow from age, skin soft and wrinkled, facing the fear that I had just escaped -- and was now hiding from. She faced death with no fear and forceful denial while people sat around with tears in their eyes knowing that she will soon be a memory.
From that day on I promised myself that I would not hide from death. It is inevitable. Scary, dramatic things happen in life and the end comes unexpectedly, but when that day comes you should know you had the best life you could give yourself.
Locking myself inside the house did not solve anything and I still had dreams to accomplish, so I got up and got busy. It’s been almost three years since my accident and I am living my life my way: happily, with no regrets. Since then I have entered school to accomplish my dream of becoming a news anchor, and I am back on the road -- still wearing my seat belt, which I believed help save my life.
Truthfully, there’s not a day since then that goes by when I get into a car that I don’t think about that horrible day, and maybe someday it will happen again. But you can never really know what the road ahead has waiting, so stay curious to stay cautious and live everyday like it could be your last.
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