Accidents Teach You Life Lessons | Teen Ink

Accidents Teach You Life Lessons

February 19, 2024
By renteria-c2 BRONZE, Joliet, Illinois
renteria-c2 BRONZE, Joliet, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

During my childhood, I had gone through many incidents. Most of them were from riding my bike or going outside and playing around. I had received my first and only bike on my 9th birthday as a present. I really liked it because it was all black and it went well with my aesthetic. My older sister had a bike too, but hers was a little bigger than mine since she was taller and it was pink with different shades of  purple. We would go out for a bike ride almost every day except on rainy days unless we were really bored and had nothing else to do. Me and my sister would always pull pranks on each other but since she was older I couldn’t pull heavy pranks on her because she would tell on me if I did. That day my sister noticed that I wasn’t doing anything around the house so she asked me if I wanted to go out for a bike ride and me being myself I said, “ of course!”  

 

          I was very good when it came to riding a bike. I would ride my bike almost daily around my neighborhood and I would ride it to my cousin’s house during the summer. When I would go for a bike ride, my older sister would tag along sometimes.

       

       My dad was home and he had told us that our uncle was coming to help with construction and we knew that if our uncle came then most likely our cousin was going to come along. We had waited 4 hours until they arrived and me and my sister were very excited to see our cousin since we wouldn’t see her as often. We saw that they had arrived and we went to open the door for them with big smiles on our faces. My uncle went to help my dad with construction work while we took our bikes out of the garage. We got on the sidewalk and we only had two bikes at the moment so we decided to take turns riding the bikes. Me and my cousin went first and I had taken a big lap around the block and we kept taking turns until we got bored of just riding the bike around the neighborhood. 


       About five hours passed and at this point we wanted to do something more entertaining and fun with our bikes so we all started thinking about other ideas of what we could do outside. That's when my sister brought up an idea that sounded fun to all of us. She asked us, “ Would you guys want to play a game of red and green light?”  We immediately agreed to play because we couldn’t think of something better. My sister was quick to say that she wanted to play as the green and red light and that me and my cousin were the ones that drove the bikes as cars. We agreed on the roles and we got on our bikes and started pedaling. 


       We had done a couple rounds of the green and red light game already and we were getting tired so we decided to have our last round. When me and my cousin were pulling up to where my sister was standing, me and my cousin were facing each other and my sister decided to say green light to both of us. I had a feeling that it was a mistake but I was young and just ignored the thought. I decided to start pedaling full speed towards my cousin because my route was going straight and then I saw my cousin start pedaling towards me too. I had enough space to pass around her but for some reason my cousin's bike got in my way and we ended up crashing. I flew off my bike and landed face first on the floor and I saw my knees and arms all bloody and I touched my face and I had a big cut on my left cheek. I started panicking and was screaming and crying because of the pain I was in. It was a pain that I never felt in my life before. Everything was aching and my wounds were burning and hurting so bad. My dad and my uncle ended up hearing my cries and screams and ran to where we were. I can remember the look on their faces when they had seen me on the floor bleeding and crying. It was as if they hadn’t seen a little kid this hurt before.  My uncle hurried and carried me inside the house and sat me on the couch. 

 

         My mom had come downstairs from her room because she had heard me crying. She saw me sitting on the couch all bloody and asked me,” what had happened?!”. I told her that me and my cousin had crashed our bikes while both of us were going full speed and I was the only one that got hurt, surprisingly and thankfully my cousin was okay. She took the aid kit out and started treating my wounds. I couldn’t stop crying and she had told me that she had made my favorite dish which was chicken alfredo at the time. Her telling me this made me feel way better. While I was still sitting down on the couch, I saw my sister getting closer to me and she asked me to forgive her for allowing that to happen and for thinking it was funny to do so. I decided to forgive her but I let her know that pranks weren’t allowed between us anymore. 

 

         From that day on, me and my sister would just play like siblings without causing each other to be bothered or anything. She would always apologize for pranking me the way she did even though I was almost over it. I just kept telling it because I found it funny and how it played in my head. I made it clear to her that it was really okay and to not be sorry about it anymore and just simply move on from that episode of our lives.


The author's comments:

This piece is based on a childhood accident that I had when I was 9 years old. 


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