The Miracle of August 19th/20th

I was in my first car wreck last night. My friends and I were dropping off one of our other friends. We realize we're about to miss our exit. As we get to the off-ramp, we lose control. All I remember is left, right, and then I was upside down. I see the outlines of my friends unbuckling themselves and dropping to the roof of the car. As I'm hanging there (seatbelts work! wear them!) my first thought is, "We just crashed." My next thought is, "What do I do now?"


I was expecting pain. Lots of pain. And blood. yet there was nothing. All I know is that I'm hanging upside-down in car that just crashed. My friend releases me and I am free from the car. We crawl out the doors, and we start checking for injuries.


There are none. None of us are injured. We have a few cuts from getting out, but other than that, we're all fine. the driver breaks down into tears. My friends and I hug each other tight. All things considered, we should have been in much worse shape. We were going freeway speed (a little faster actually) when we lost control. I'm in shorts and flip-flops and there's no glass embedded anywhere in me.


My defense mechanism for stressful situtations must be humor. Or maybe it's me being optimisitc, who knows? But I start listing off the positives that have occurred. I start babbling how cool it is that we're sitting on an off-ramp. Further more, I'm grateful I don't have to be rushed to a hospital where they stick an IV up my arm and..ugh...can't even think of that right now. None of us have to go the hospital.


I consider texting my dad at this point, when I realize that I need to hear his voice. So I call, tell him I'm okay, my friends are all okay, and that I love him. As I hang up the phone, I start to cry. But it's gone quickly as, maybe subconciously, I need to be optimistic me.


The cops show up, legal business ensues, and as I'm riding home it hits me: I could have died. The thought never crossed my mind as we clambered out of the car. Not once in that space of a hour and a half did I think my life might have ended. At this, I start to cry, grateful for the fact that I'm alive, that I get to go home and hug my dad and tell him I love him.


I think my mom was there that night. I didn't have any visions or hear any voices. My life didn't flash before my eyes. But, considering we all got out of that car unscathed (well physically. Emotionally it was a ride for all of us), and that the car's airbags didn't deploy which probably would have trapped my friends in the front seat (I was in the backseat), we had to have had heavenly help.


So, a thank you to my Heavenly Father for keeping me safe that night, and sending me divine help when I needed it most. And thank you for knowing exactly which people needed to be there when the accident occured. Had it been just me, I don't know what I would have done. Also, to whoever decided to invent seatbelts: Thank you. You probably saved all of my friends lives that night.


You wanna hear something funny? As we're going into the crash, i plug my nose. Because I don't want ot get a bloody one. Or like, i'm going into a swimming pool or something and that's gonna protect me. yeah, my survival insticts are weird.