It was November 30, 2008 and I had just turn 18 a few days ago. It was hard to believe I was 18 already I was happy because now I was considered an adult and would soon get my drivers license. My dad got me an old 1996 beat up GEO metro for my birthday. The GEO metro was blue the seats had tears all over them and the blue paint was fading away, and sometimes I had trouble getting it started. The car was a piece of junk, but it was better than walking so I was grateful I had it. One day coming back from school while driving in the freeway the car died on me. I felt so angry at the car for braking down on the freeway, and felt like a totally loser standing on the side of the freeway. Now I had to call my dad to go pick me up. When my dad arrived to where I was, he called for a tow truck and they took the car to the mechanic. The car was fixed the next day and they charged us 600 dollars to repair it.

A month had gone by and in two days it was going to be Christmas. This was my favorite time of the year because all of my family would get together to have a dinner and open presents, but I would of never have imagine this Christmas was not going to be like any other.
The next day I was at a friend’s house when I got a call from my mom. My mom sounded terrified. She told me my dad have been in a terrible car accident while driving to work and had been lifted by air to Seattle. I could not believe what I was hearing, I was in shock, this couldn’t be happening. I left my friend’s house as soon as possible and drove home.

When I got home my mother wasn’t there. I called her cell phone number and she picked up I asked her where she was, she told me she was in her way to Seattle. I told her I was going to go to Seattle to see my father but she told me to say home. There was no way I was going to stay home, I needed to see my father. I got my car keys got in the car and left.

It was getting dark and I was scared because I was in the mountains and it had started to snow. Seattle was 5 hours from where I lived, but now that it was snowing it was going to make me longer. I was driving when I suddenly lost control of the car somehow one of the tires had come off. I tried to stop but the car skidded I completely lost control of the car and I went off road.

The car was heading straight for the river. It was as if time had slowed down, I saw my whole life passing through my eyes. The car hit the water. The water was freezing cold, I was trapped under the water, I tried to escape, but I couldn’t get the door to open and I suddenly blacked out. When I woke up I was shivering on the shore of the river. I had never felt so much cold in my life. I didn’t know how I got out of the sinking car, but it didn’t matter because I was alive. I had a few scratches but nothing serious. I looked around but it was still dark and I couldn’t see anything. I was worried about hypothermia because I was soaked in water. It was no longer snowing and I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it alive until the morning.

When the sun finally came up I tried to look around to see if there was any sign of civilization. It was hard to walk, my muscles wouldn’t respond so well. I was concern about hypothermia, so I got up and started to jump around and did a few push-ups. That really helped me to get warmer. I walked around for one hour, and I was about to give up looking for help and sit down and wait for my death when I saw smoke, about two miles away from where I was. I was happy to see the smoke but I wasn’t sure if I had the energy in me to walk that distance. I started to walk towards the smoke, I was walking so slow I was barely making any progress. As I was walking all I had in my mind was my family. I wished my dad was ok. They probably didn’t have the most minimum idea of what I was going through. I had to stay alive for them. I started to walk faster and I was getting closer and closer to the smoke. There was a small cabin, that was where the smoke was coming from. A man came out of the cabin he ran towards me. The man had a big beard, he was wearing a big brown coat, camel pants, and black snow boots. I knew I was safe and I collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and blacked out.

When I woke up I was in a hospital bed and my mom was standing next to me. She was smiling, I asked my mom where my father was and she said he was ok, but he had gone through four surgeries. My mom told me I was alive thanks to the guy who had rescued me and had taken me to the hospital. The doctors told my mom I had hypothermia and if I had passed one more hour in those conditions I would have died. I told my mom to forgive me for not listening to her. She hugged me and said not to worry, now everything was going to be ok. Since that day I never disobey my mother and wondering who or what got me out of the sinking car. I like to think it wasn’t my time to leave this world and that God gave me and my father a second chance.