Sometimes in life, we're forced to admit to ourselves we're
not as smart as we once thought we were. It can be in the world of academia.
We've all experienced getting that horrible test grade that we were absolutely
positive was going to be an 100% (for the record, I had a concussion because a
bathroom light fixture crashed over my head if that helps explain that 63% on
my Biology 101 exam). Honestly, it's much more likely that these moments
present themselves throughout the course of everyday life.
For example, throughout most of my teenage and adult years,
I can remember being driven nuts by one simple thing my parents (specifically
my mom) would always do. Every time I'd leave home, I would hear the same thing,
"Be careful." To me, those words meant that I wasn't smart enough to
be careful without hearing them first. In my head I was always saying some
sarcastic like, "Well, I wasn't going to be but I guess I will now." However,
now that I'm a parent, I find myself with a little more understanding as to
what that means. That's especially true after the events of this past weekend.
On Saturday morning, we found ourselves with a full morning
of errands that we needed to run. Chief among them was to find Bethany a new
pair of eye glasses that did not result in pain to her ears and nose. For
future reference, we now know that when one's prescription is bad, they don't
want to purchase rimless glasses. The More You Know....
As you can probably guess, the three of us found ourselves
packed into my RAV4 around 10:30 heading towards our local shopping district. After
about 10 minutes in the car, the usually brisk pace of traffic on Highway 152
began to slow from the speed limit of 65. Now, since I really didn't want to
hit anyone in front of me, I decided I should probably slow as well.
Almost as soon as I made this decision, I felt a large jolt
coming from behind us. At this moment, I glanced in the rearview mirror just in
time to see a tan pickup truck careening into the median at a high rate of
speed behind us. Bethany, upon feeling the jolt, looked at me and said,
"Did the spare tire just fall off the back?" before turning around to
discover we no longer had a rear window in the RAV4.
I immediately pulled onto the side of the highway and
flipped on the hazard lights before exiting the car. The first thing I saw upon
walking to the rear of the vehicle was that, in addition to no rear window, the
size of my cargo bay had shrunk considerably. I then moved my eyes down the
highway to see that the tan truck had not only careened into the median, but
had also taken out several guard rails along the way.
As I was surveying the damage and calling 911, Bethany was
opening the door to the back seat on the passenger side to extricate Ellie from
her car seat. The story of what she would find still amazes me. Ellie was
wide-eyed, as if in shock, covered in glass from the chest down. However, when
Bethany removed Ellie from the car seat, the only issue to be found was small
traces of blood on Ellie's clothes. I guess I should mention said traces of
blood didn't come from my daughter. It instead was from a small, but deep cut on
Bethany's finger suffered when removing Ellie from the car seat.
I never did get the full story of what occurred to cause the
wreck as I never had the opportunity to speak to the driver of the tan truck
since our vehicles were on opposite sides of the highway. Based off what I
heard from the police, as well as a witness that stopped, was that the other
driver had his airbag deploy at some point during his wild ride but the only
sign of trauma to be seen was slight bleeding from his mouth. Between all
parties involved, the accident could have undoubtedly been much worse as only
two cars were involved and no serious injuries were suffered.
I feel especially lucky given the fact that Ellie was in the
car with us. While I'm bummed my car is torn up (and possibly a loss), I am
grateful for the fact we were driving the RAV instead of Bethany's sedan. I
hate to even contemplate what would have happened to us in that instance.
 |
| RIP RAV4? TBD. |
So, coming full circle, you can see why I now have a new
found appreciation for the seemingly thousands of times my parents have said
"Be careful." It's not so much them thinking I'm incompetent as it's
them being worried about the actions of the others on the road alongside me.
Unfortunately, knowing what I know now, I'll probably find myself driving my
daughter insane some day with those two simple words every time she leaves the
house. Maybe as a girl she'll be a little more understanding of it than I was
as a teenage boy. I can hope that's the case at least. #DaddyWrite
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