It was a calm and warm morning. One of those awesome summer mornings when you know that it was going to be a good day, but it was also the day that I learned one of the most common, but most important, lessons of my life. I always knew that stupid decisions would probably turn out bad, but I never knew how bad things could get or how great the consequences could be. We decided as a family the night before that we were going to go up to Higgen’s Lake for the day and just screw around. I was so excited to go the next morning. I finally understood how people at NASA were excited for sending a robot to Mars. Even though going to a lake is nothing compared to one of NASA’s projects I was still pretty excited. The next morning went by quickly. We quickly packed our things and left the house by 7:30. Knowing that it was a 3 hour drive, I wasn’t really sure of what to do during that time. “Mom are we there yet? How many more minutes until we get there? Why do we have to come up here every weekend?? It’s so boring!” These were the things that I would constantly ask parents when I was little and stuck in the car for over 2 hours. She always looked so frustrated. “Riley close your eyes and take a nap.” That’s the response that I always got. Every single time. But I was a kid and I had a lot of energy. “If you don’t say another word for the rest of the drive, I’ll give you $100.” I immediately shut up. I made it the whole car ride there until my mom told me that there was a rest stop coming up. “Does anyone need to go to the bathroom?” Not thinking at all I stupidly replied, “No.” The second the words left my mouth I realized what I had done and I instantly regretted it. She told me that I lost the bet. I was so angry at myself. That was the first time I realized how easily you can lose something when you do something stupid.

Now I end up looking looking out the window most of the time. I’ve always hated long car rides, but as I’ve grown up I realized that I really don’t mind them as much. I kind of like them now because it gives you time to just think. Time to think about anything. I began thinking about what we we’re going to do later that day. I thought about how cold the water was going to be and what stupid little argument my brother and sister would get into. All of these thoughts just kind of blended blended together with the blur of the green trees and the open fields that were on the other side of the window. The car was so warm and I was so calm that I began to drift off. It was awesome. I was asleep and sitting in the most uncomfortable position I’ve even been when my mom turned around and said, “Everyone wake up! We’re here and I need everyone to quickly get out so we can get out on the lake before it gets really busy!” I was a little crabby because of my failed attempt to sleep. I got out of the car and stretched. My neck and my back felt like someone smashed them with a sledgehammer over and over. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh. I need to start being more gentle with old people because if this is what they constantly feel like I’d be miserable!” Sitting in the middle of the back seat in between your brother and sister is pretty rough. I feel like car companies would get a lot more business if they modified the back seat so that is was more comfortable. Like how a nurse is concerned about the safety and comfort of a patient, a car company should be concerned with the overall comfort and safety of the back seat, along with the entire car.

When we got out of the car we quickly ran to the boat and worked on getting it into the water. It was also getting very busy in a very short amount of time. We got onto the water and headed for the middle of the lake. The scenery was amazing! The sun lit everything up. The trees were as green as could be and the clear blue sky made the green from the trees stand out. THere wasn’t any seaweed in the lake’ I could easily see the bottom of the lake because the water was unbelievably blue and clear. You really had to just stand there and take a moment to admire everything. Once we were a good distance from the shore, my dad stopped the boat and turned around, “ Riley do you want to drive the boat?” I was so excited I couldn’t say no. After getting up in the front seat I couldn’t push the lever. I then stupidly decided to push it as hard as I could and that sent the boat flying. My parents were taken by surprise. Once I saw that we were heading straight for another boat I realized that we weren’t going to live if we crashed. My instincts kicked in and I swerved out of the way at the last minute. With both of my parents yelling at me I somehow managed to slow the boat down. In that moment I couldn’t feel anything. I was so full of fear and guilt that I thought I was going to throw up. I realized what I had done and it made me sick to my stomach. I realized how my stupid decision could have killed my family. To this day I always think about how my actions will affect myself and the others around me. Decisions that I’ll have to make in the future will always be influenced by this experience. If I had to tell someone the most important thing I learned while growing up I would tell them that they should think before they act because things can always go wrong and that the outcome is unpredictable.