A Short Story : Expect The Unexpected

I pulled out of my driveway behind a white pickup truck that was speeding and thought to myself how lucky I was to have not gotten behind someone driving slowly. Keeping up with the truck was easy, knowing I wouldn’t get a speeding ticket if the driver in front of me was going the same speed. As I drove around a curve, going a little too fast for this particular twist in the road, the right front tire of my jeep caught the gravel on the side of the road. The roads were slick from rain and applying the brakes caused me to hydroplane, then lose control and head into the ditch on the right side of the road. Scared to death, I jerked the wheel to get back onto the road, which I should’ve never done. Turning the steering wheel too hard,

On a sunny afternoon in May of 2013 I learned a very important lesson. I was at a family auction in the small quiet town of Ames, Oklahoma. The dew was still wet on the ground and the air was crisp. There was a lot of my extended family there as well as people I had never met. I got to see my cousin Taylor as well as one of her cousins named Jadey. We decided we were going to go ride four wheelers out in the field and it was at that time I learned a valuable lesson. Four wheeler accidents happen often, but I never expected to be the one involved. Before my accident I thought four wheelers were fairly safe, but afterwards I learned that an accident can happen in a split second and you should never assume you won’t be the one involved.

Job to be completely honest I don’t know what to say to you. Things usually happen for a reason whether they’re good or bad. Try to think and see if it’s karma for something that you’ve done in the past. When bad things are happening, you just have to take them on and not let them keep you down. No matter how bad they are, it us up to you to keep yourself with a positive mentality. You control your fate. God can help you or hurt you, but you are in charge of how you respond. Don’t be remembered as the person who was struck down by a problem, be remembered as the one who overcame the challenge.

Well I was not that lucky, as I went around the corner, I said “Watch this!”, as I pushed harder on the gas pedal. I came around the corner drifting off more than expected; I corrected it too much to where I lost control of the wheel. I blinked for a second, I could see we were heading right into a ditch. Not having much time to hit the brakes, right into the ditch we went. If it wasn’t for the way the wheels were turned we probably would have been able to drive away. The wheels were turned to the left, therefore the way they hit the ditch made us tip over on the driver’s side. I knew we had to get out instantly making sure nothing was leaking, or caught on fire, also to check if we were seriously injured. My friend and I had our windows down, therefore we climbed out of her window. When we got out of the car we both checked ourselves for anything, which I was covered in broken glass from when my window broke hitting the ground. Luckily I did not fall out the window because I was not wearing my seat belt. I had used my hand to catch me from hitting my head or anything else. I was bleeding all over from the many little cuts I had from shoulder to my fingertips. After making sure we were

Reaching across the center console of my car, I imagined the commute that I had into school. My 1992 Jeep Cherokee courageously braved the snowstorm of the year, with only one functional windshield wiper and a forlorn four wheel drive system. As I turned onto the Merritt Parkway, a Honda Civic swerved past me and proceeded to weave in and out of the afternoon traffic. Fast-forward sixty seconds and that Honda was now engulfed by the powder white trees which bound the highway. Instinctively, I pulled up behind the crash site, dialing 911 as I ran over to the mangled wreck. I peered into the car, my pupils the size of marbles, and the driver seemed uninjured; regardless, I proceeded to reassure the driver that Emergency Medical Technician’s/Paramedic’s

“Amanda Clark’s phone conversation came to an abrupt end when her Chevrolet Trailblazer rolled three times before landing on its roof. She had run a stop sign and was broadsided by another driver. Metal caved in around her, but the roof stayed intact and she survived with just scrapes and bruises” (Tracy). Amanda Clark survived her first car accident caused by distracted driving, but wasn’t as lucky the second time. After she started driving again, she pledged to put her phone away and focus on driving. Clark’s Mother, Bonnye Spray, said, “I thought this would be a wakeup call for her, and it was for a short time she wouldn’t talk on the phone, she was more cautious. But she got more confident in her driving and a sense of ‘Hey, I survived one, I’m invincible, nothing is going to happen to me now’” (Tracy). A year after her accident, Clark was driving on a highway. She

It’s good to talk with you. You’re right, sometimes life can throw us curve-balls. We do have to ask ourselves the question, how are we going to respond to these curve-balls? When we find ourselves in these situations, I feel like we need to remain positive and talk to God. In “Where There’s a Will , There’s a Way” Anne Harrington states, in order to remain resilient during stressful times, we must tackle these situations with positive emotions and positive thoughts (2012). I feel like we are a blessed people, so when life throws us a curve-ball, let’s remain resilient and respond with a positive

Not many things in life stay the say anymore. You can expect one thing to happen but then all of a sudden its turns out totally different. There is a quote that kind of speaks to me from a movie called forest Gump “life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re going to get”. It’s so true but we as humans, we adapt we take on these changes and we adapt to them. I’m going tell you about a big change for me about seven years ago the move that changed many things for me.

I gripped the wheel and made a sharp left and went up the curb into the heavily landscaped median. My shiney black Charger went airborne, grazed a tree and landed on top of some shrubbery. A disaster had been averted, I was humiliated and ashamed at my negligence, but we were all alive. The people in the car ahead of me with the terrified eyes never even pulled over, they just kept on going. I sat there atop the shrubbery in my sleek black Charger, first laughing and then weeping. I never played the radio that loudly again, and that was the last time I cruised Gratiot Avenue. It was a lesson that was not lost on me. I still love cars but that moment was a slingshot into adulthood, where my carerfree reckless world gave way to booster seats, and insurance rates. Don't get me wrong, I still get goosebumps when I hear the sound of a six cylinder hemi, but from that night on I learned to understand and respect the responsibility that comes with that kind of

One time I had to overcome adversity is when I had an AP bio test. This was the third or fourth big test we had taken in the class and the last test before the second quarter began. The week before the test I procrastinated studying until the very last night. The night before the test I knew I had to buckle down and study for at least a couple of hours.

We started from Chicago and went all way down I-95 West to get to our destination. Sam drove for hours, he never stopped for gas once or for food. I was wondering how long did we have left, I glanced at the GPS to see how long we had remaining. Darkness fell, gas began to become an issue. I asked Sam “Are we stopping for gas soon”, he looked me with eagerness. He said “Well stop on the next exit”. I thought to myself how long was he gonna drive without gas until I said something about

The chances of being in a car crash is only 1 in 5,000. I have never been in one, but I have seen them on the sides of the roads. Tragedy is an unavoidable, and no matter the level of effect it has on a person, it is still impactful. I have been lucky enough to never have had to be a bearer of bad news, but I have had an experience that has come close. This essay is about my experience with true tragedy, and sharing my experiences with others.

the cops could never catch up to me. In March of 1965 before riding around George two guys decided they wanted to race me. After dropping my wife off, I told them my friend and I would meet them East of town and I started at where the funeral home is now and by the time I was at the nursing home corner I was doing 90 mph. Just a little way ahead there was a car sitting in the middle of the road, right where I was headed because of ice and water. I hit the brakes seconds before I collided with the car. I damaged the car and totaled mine. My friend in the passenger seat put his knee up and smudged the paint right off of the glove bow and when I saw the crash coming I grabbed the steering wheel as tight as I could and bent it forward until it vaguely resembled a steering wheel. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. The Highway patrol man never gave me a ticket because of the ice but looking at the damage, I thought it would be a good idea to give me a

December 15, 2015, 8:43 pm. I was on my way to get a white elephant gift for the Christmas party I had the next day. As I approached the green light, I quickly decided to go into the left turn lane to go a different route. As I sat at the red light, I fiddled with the worn away part of my steering wheel partly out of boredom and partly from being nervous about the final I had the next morning. I looked around blatantly not knowing that in the next couple of seconds, my life was going to change. I looked in the rear view mirror at the blurry truck

There are many lessons in life that we can only learn through experience, and I feel like life has a way of surprising us all the time with the things we least expect — good or bad.