Todays thought...getting back in the saddle.

This is a little story about something that happened to me in my past. When I was 16, I got married. To keep my little brother from having to ride the bus to school I would pick him up in the mornings.

One morning I wanted to get him some donuts. I stopped at the store, got the donuts and headed on my way. The little side road that I traveled had just been paved. I was 17 and just a kid in my senior year in high school and young and stupid. I was going around a corner on the road and the morning dews had just brought up the new oils on the road. The tail end of my car broke loose and I panicked. To make it worse there was another vehicle in the oncoming lane.

To avoid hitting him I jerked the wheel to the right and hit the brakes. I went off the shoulder (or lack there of) of the road. My car went down in the ditch and to pull my self back up I jerked the wheel to the left. I had over corrected. I started in a flat spin and centripical force took over.

I had done a complete 360 and was on my way around for another one. A tree stopped my spin. I had come out of the full spin, on my way back around and hit the tree with the back of the car. I hit it with such force that my car was quite literally picked up off the ground and catapulted, with me in it, across the street.

I very likely should not have made it out of that car accident. By all rights, I should have been dead. But not only did I make it out of the car accident...I walked away from it.

My car was totalled of corse. My windsheild imploded and was in the front seat with me. My spare tire exploded on impact and the tow truck operator told me that my gas can was so compacted that if the gas inside of it had ignited from scraping on the pavement, it would have blown my car sky high. And lastly I hit the tree so hard that my tail light was permanently imbedded in the tree. It would still be there today if the tree had not been cut down to make way for a new driveway.

It took me a long time to get back behind the wheel of a car. That is partly due to my ex not letting me drive until the accident was off of my record enough that I could be insured. (He was a control freak, hence the ex --- but that is another blog entry all in its own).

The point in this, I did get behind the wheel again. As well as everytime I fall off my horse, I get right back up. I know it can be scary to do what you have to after something like that...but you just have to do it. Remember, keep your chin up, and get back in that saddle.