The vivid memory of banging across the glass car window and hearing the car breaks squeak. Staring at the highway in shock. The ghastly memory still never leaves my mind today.  The car crash that changed my life.

Waking up in the late morning. 9:00am. It was game day for me. It was one of my team’s first indoor soccer games. Too focused on the game, I got my cleats and water bottle ready. I waited in the kitchen for my mom to get down. I looked behind me to find the pure white snowfall, getting a little feeling from my head that something was coming up. I was too tired to have a focal point on it, but then my mom abruptly came down stairs and was ready to go.

We pulled out of the driveway. I was sitting in the left backseat in my mom’s car, taking in the warm from the heater down towards the floor, a bear coming out from hibernating.  I took a little nap on the way but then woke up when we were beginning to get on the highway. The roads were icy; I could tell by the sound the car made. Most cars were driving five to ten miles slower than the speed limit. My mom’s was too, but maybe not as slow.

The exit was close. I knew where we were. We would begin to see the bright green sign in the misty fog any moment. Our car started to switch lanes.

          ¨Hey Mom, you might want to be careful a bit,” I said warningly.

Then out of nowhere everything went in slow motion. We would be swerving into the left guardrail. My head in the same motion viciously banged against the glass window. My body had no control. Only my eyes would open for a split second. This second I would remember until the day I die. The landscape I saw was blurred and spinning. I saw the window, and out the window was the middle of the highway. Cars would be speeding ahead, horns would be beeping, and commotion was throughout the air. Then it went black in an instant.

I tried so hard of what to do in my head, but nothing would come. I tried harder and harder, but then I would be interrupted by the banging jolt from the back of the car. I thought it would never end. But after a couple minutes it stopped. Everything was still. I was waiting for one more thing to happen. Nothing did. I opened my eyes and looked out the window. The slow motion feeling stopped and cars sped by. I looked in front to see our car laid horizontally in the middle of the right lane.

I instantly thought about my mom and family. It reminded me of the time when I was mad at them and didn’t want to talk to them when I was little. It reminded me of the time I punched my brother in anger of him annoying me and not feeling bad one bit. Or this morning when I was mad at my mom for being so slow at getting ready. This thought stuck for a little more than a minute and then disappeared.

I was so traumatized that by not controlling it, I made a little high pitch scream. It alarmed my mom to ask me if I was okay. She was scared and didn't know what to do either. She jumped out of the car to open my door and snuggle up to me, avoiding the snow falling down. A frozen tear dropped down from my eye on to my bright red jersey. It made a puddle on my brand new jersey.

A pain started to flourish in my head. I lifted my hand that my mom was holding and touched the side of my head where the pain was coming from. There was a little bump.  ¨Did you hit your head too?¨ My mom said.

¨Yeah,¨ I said in a shaky voice. We were stranded, blocking the highway, and didn't know what to do. Then a car pulled fast to the side and stopped. A young man came out and went straight to my mom.

¨I saw what happened, are you okay?¨ the young sweet man said.

Yes, we are okay. I will call the police,¨ said my mom.

Many thoughts started to swirl in my head like a tornado. Was I going to go to my soccer game still? What would the police do when they got here? And how did no cars hit us while we were spinning? It made no sense to me how my mom and I didn’t have one single blemish on our bodies.

Far down the highway I saw red and blue luminous lights and sirens going ballistic. The lights got bigger and brighter as the police car zoomed past cars. Then the car came to a stop. A police officer came out. He ran to my mom and began asking questions about the crash. Only some words chimed in like ¨inner section¨ and ¨paperwork.” But one sentence he said stuck out the most: ¨Most civilians in this situation don't make it out alive.”

My eyes darted to the conversation. I thought about what he said the whole time until my dad showed up to pick me up in his ebony black truck. I told him about the crash, holding back tears the ride home.

Today the scene and moment still come across my mind once and awhile. I am just very happy and thankful that my mom and I were okay and survived.  One lesson I learned from this experience is to be thankful for everything you have and love the people in life that love you and help you. Make sure you hug them once in awhile because they could all go in just one moment.

-Alexa Smith