Laughter and a Car Crash | Teen Ink

Laughter and a Car Crash

January 23, 2013
By nikiiiZ GOLD, Chicago, Illinois
nikiiiZ GOLD, Chicago, Illinois
12 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Tuesday was destined for doom. Tuesday marked the beginning of semester two, the first day back from finals. It was bad enough having to lose aproximately 7 hours of glorious sleep to get up for school, but that loss doesn't seem so bad compared to what happened next.

I've had my license since March of last year, and I had yet to crash my car or receive a speeding ticket. I was a pretty decent driver; I didn't go 30 over the limit or cut people off for pleasure, which is something I feel my generation loves to do. Since I got my license I have been driving my two friends to and from school, and all was well until Tuesday morning.

There was nothing special about the highway that morning. There was the regular stop-and-go traffic by the exits, otherwise one could travel at a decent speed. Well, I was driving on the highway to school at about 7:10am, both my friends in the car. I was approaching an area heavy with traffic and was going around 30mph and braking. At that time, I was a good amount behind the car in front of me. Well, this car happened to have NO break lights and also was at a complete stop. Unfortunately, I realized this fact a little late. Slamming on my breaks did little to prevent me from rear-ending the car in front of me.

Though the crash wasn't horrific, the crunch of my bumper gets me every time. I prayed as the car in front of my accelerated that no damage was done to his car. Thankfully, there wasn't. Nonetheless, we still pulled over onto the shoulder and got out of our cars. The guy was sort of a jerk, and then again he wasn't. The police weren't called and there were no exchange of insurance cards or telephone numbers, which was fantastic. Though his car was fine, my front bumper was completely cracked. I was devastated and embarrassed at the same time. I had no idea how my parents were going to react to this.

And so the day dragged. School was nothing special, though I'm glad nothing else horrific happened. But, silly me, the festivities were just beginning!

That night I had softball practice. Since my car was still working and intact (for the most part), I drove myself to practice. With nearly half an hour to kill, I went to get gas, as my tank was only about a quarter filled. I don't know why I waited until this particular day to get gas, it was below zero and absolutely freezing. To save time, I put my debit card in my pocket instead of my wallet. Well, let's just say time was not saved.

It didn't dawn on me to check my pocket until I was about 5 minutes away from the gas station. That's when I realized my debit card was not in my pocket. It seemed to take forever to speed back to the station to look for my car. Bracing the cold once again, I searched outside for my debit card, but it was no where to be found. I couldn't believe my rotten luck. To be safe, I decided to search my car before calling my mom with more bad news. Fortunately, the card had stuck itself into a tiny crevice in my car. Nonetheless, time was not well spent.

Softball practice was supposed to relieve my mind of all this stress. Instead, it just caused more. The amount of conditioning we did was unimaginable. My body ached everywhere and all I wanted was the chug a few waters in a matter of ten seconds. It was already so late and I was already exhausted from my day; the last thing I needed was a total of 50 push-ups, 75 burpees, a set of froggies, and a total of 15 sprints.

As I was driving back home, I thought about what a fantastic day I had. I rear-ended someone, almost lost my debit card, and almost collapsed from the excessive amount of conditioning I had to endure. Not to mention I had missed my favorite TV show and ran out of my favorite comfort food. Normally, I would have started crying my eyes out and feeling sorry for myself. Instead, I reacted differently.

I laughed.

I literally laughed the entire ride home. I don't know why I did; I had just had one of the worst days of my life! This was definitely not a laughing matter. But for some reason, laughing made the pain go away. For some odd reason, laughing made these situations seem less awful. And so I kept laughing.

I know it can be hard to stay positive in times of stress. But I will say, it sure does help you get past your adversities a lot faster!



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