I want you Here

August 19th, 2021. Around 10:30 I had just got home from activities and started to sit down for dinner. I had just started at a new school and was still trying to get acquainted and situated with making new friends and involving myself in activities. As I was sitting down, I received a facetime call. I did not realize answering this phone call would change my life, as it was just a random Thursday during the first week of school. I answered and began to listen to what the other person had to say; There was a car crash earlier that night, a girl from my school. I did not think it could be related to me since I knew only 2 or 3 people at school. I sat there and listened to the gruesome details of what the crash scene looked like. A vivid image of my new classmate suffering in something so terrible. I could not eat, I put away my food in shock and sat there horrified, staring at the person who had called and informed me. I felt awful, a 16 year old daughter, a sister, a friend gone in a second. 

I woke up the next morning with a text from the same person who had previously informed me of what had happened. They found out the name of the victim. It was 1 of the 3 people I knew at school. My soul dropped and a sort of pit formed in my stomach, I felt terrified, scared, and lost. She was someone who was my mentor for the first week of school. An actual friend of mine, not a stranger that I would just pass in the hallway. She was someone who helped me through all my first steps at school and the reason I got to know many of the people I met. I did not know what to do, I was paralyzed. When I read the text I did not move for several seconds. I was on my way out the door about to drive to school when I truly found out. It felt wrong to get in the car, put my hands on the steering wheel and go to school, passing the same location where she died. I walked into my school astounded by the amount of people sitting in the chapel for mass. Mourning her death together. 

The details of the crash came in later. Her boyfriend was driving her as they were hanging out after school. I remember her telling me all about it in the hall. How she was going to talk to him about if there was a chance for their future. She described to me how happy she would be one day to get married and have a family with him. A radiant smile on her face as she explained her fantasies of the future and what they were going to do later that evening. Her boyfriend drove 120 MPH down k-7, a small highway with a speed limit of 60. They guessed he must have checked his phone for a split second and veered off the road into the center median of a bridge. It took a second. A second to check a text, skip a song, check something, just anything on his phone, that could have saved her life.

According to NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 42,915 people who died in a car crash during 2021. That is 42,915 people that could have been alive today, if only people drove safely. I have seen the impacts it has had on people to lose someone so unexpectedly in a car crash, the stress that it caused on the family and community. All we want is for you to be here with us, alive, well, and breathing. Not checking your phone while driving, paying attention to the road, driving at a responsible speed, making smart decisions while driving to ensure the safety of those around us and ourselves can protect others from having to experience the same thing. The painful wretched feeling in your gut that paralyzes you with fear. The thoughts running through your brain as you try to fathom how something like this could happen. The depression of losing someone so important and close to you. The heartache of missing someone you thought was just on their way home. All of this could be avoided if we all just choose to drive safely and responsibly. So next time before you check your phone, just remember it takes only a few seconds to change your life or someone else’s.