Blessed

Today is the two year anniversary of Crystal's passing. I didn't even know she had died until I was on Facebook this morning and saw the updated status of an old schoolmate. When I found out she had passed away, I googled her only to find that the car accident actually happened two years ago. We weren't good friends or anything, but we had all our classes together during middle school. I remember her. And I can see her smiley face when I say her name. As a sidenote here, I'm glad everyone is using Facebook now because this would not have gone un-noticed by all WPMS Alum if it happened now.

I read the article in the NC Times. Her car flipped over on the freeway. And I had a flashback. A flashback to my senior year in high school when my own car flipped over and landed on the hood. I put my pen down, closed my eyes and saw it all happen again. Slow-motion.

On that Thursday in September 2004, it actually felt like it was happening in slow-motion. And at the same time, it happened all two quickly to be frightening. I pulled out of Palomar and made a right onto Mission. As I approached the light, I began to get into the left lane to turn onto Las Posas. A young guy rearended my back passenger-side tire. My care jolted to the left, boucing off the center divide and into the pickup truck in the lane to my right. I bounced off the car too. And flipped. It felt like I was in the air for hours until I came crashing down on the driver's side door and window. I can still see the glass shattering and I can still hear the load boom. My car was lifted again and flipped in the air before landing on the hood. My little Civic stood strong. And I hung there, quite glad I had my seat belt on because that's what kept me from falling face-first into the asphalt.

I'm so lucky that I survived. Lucky that I wasn't injured. Lucky that insurance bought me a new car. And lucky that I was able to go back to Palomar the following week, to the tennis class where I met Jeremiah. Blessed.