Lucky To Be Alive

One evening in January, 2000, I was driving home.  I was twenty at the time, turning twenty-one in February, and I was driving my newly leased vehicle.  I loved that car, it was brand new at the time-a 2000 Chevy S10 pickup truck.  I wanted a pickup truck so bad.

Anyhow, there was an uphill road I was coming to, but in order for me to go up the hill I had to first crossover a lane of traffic going in the opposite direction.  Slowly, I crept forward, I looked left, and then looked right.  I crept forward some more and then stepped on the gas looking back to my left, but when I look back to the left again I saw lights.

I was sitting in the driver seat (well, what was left of it) with my head leaning forward against the steering wheel when I woke up to the sound of something loud.  It almost sounded like a lawnmower.  I asked the man who trying to pry me out of the car if I was dreaming.

“No, this is real life,” he said.

I had been t-boned by a drunk driver, driving on the revoke list.  He hit me in my driver side door at approximately 60 to 65 mph.  The sound I heard was “The Jaws of Life,” a saw used by paramedics in situations like mine where someone had to be cut out of their vehicle after a car accident.

My car was completely totaled, I mean absolutely crushed.  Immediately, I was taken to the hospital for treatment.

I left the hospital the next morning with no major injuries, just a very sore ankle and knee.  Later on that year, I played my third season of football at William Paterson University.

I’m lucky to be alive.  I’m lucky I wasn’t crippled.  I’m lucky I didn’t lose a limb, or end up brain dead.

I’m thankful for each and every day, and every morning I wake up, because I could’ve been dead before my 21st birthday.

If you’ve never had an experience where your life was in jeopardy, then let me share something with you.  Enjoy yourself.  If you’re not happy, get to a place where you can be.

There are no stupid ideas.  Whatever puts you in position to be the best person you can be, and living the best way you can, then do it.