Once Chance, Forever Scarred

Driving.
Something a lot of us do every day, right? We sit in the car, and
hope to get to our destination as fast and as safely as possible. But
in all honesty, something we all think will never happen to us. Now,
imagine this. You’re just bopping to the music, cruising along, when
all of a sudden, BANG. The car in front of you goes into a spin. You
try to stop, but you know there is going to be a collision. As you
zoom closer, you close your eyes. And then it goes black. Three days
later, you wake up at the hospital, family and friends around you.
Suddenly, your family and friends clear up, and the doctor comes in.
But that doesn’t matter to you. You knew what was coming, and you did
not want to face it. You knew it as soon as you woke up. In anger,
you try to kick, and scream, and yell, but none of that works. Not
that you thought it was going to though. Why? Because you’re
paralyzed from the waist down, and have brain damage. All because of
something you didn’t do. You ask yourself, “What did I do to
deserve this?” It isn’t what you did though, it’s what the
others around you didn’t. After letting you calm down, they tell you
the reason for the accident. It was a text. Just one. Just a couple
of words, that did so much damage. The text made the driver run
traffic, with him swerving to miss it. The worse part was, it could
have been avoided. I get that people think they’re invincible. They
believe they will stay the way they are forever, and won’t change one
bit. But if you don’t care about how you drive, if you are willing to
risk your life with that text, then at least put it away for the
people around you. Put the phone away for the single mother with her
children crossing the street. Put that phone away for the elderly man
who must go help his wife. Put the phone away for your own family,
who may be in that car with you. They did not deserve the risks you
put on them. You have no right to take innocent lives away. You have
no right to threaten others with your actions, because your actions
will lead to consequences. Unfortunately, those consequences will
affect others on the road around you, forever. You have one chance. I
beg all of you, don’t waste that chance. It may define life or death.