There are many moments in life that make people who they are today.  One second can change someone's life forever.  I know this from experience because I still remember the day I was in a car accident like it was yesterday.  I was in 6th grade on the way to Illinois for my great-grandmother's 100th birthday. 

  My mom, sister, brother and I were well into the 6 hour car ride to Peoria on Friday, May 20th, 2011.  We were in Rockford, Illinois when my mom, who was driving, asked me to grab her a Coke from the cooler in the back.  Since it was impossible for the little 6th grade me to reach the cooler from my seat, I had to unbuckle to retrieve it.  Throughout the car ride, I was unbuckling periodically to grab food or drinks from the cooler in the back seat.  I set the Coke on the divider between the driver and passenger seat for my mom to reach behind and grab. Just as she took her right hand off the wheel and glanced toward the bottle, a speeding car trying to pass us caught the front of our car with the back of his when he was changing back into our lane.
  The collision caused our car to veer off onto the shoulder of the highway.  My mom panicked, and her initial reaction was to try to get the car back on the road, but she pulled the wheel too sharply.  We were heading into oncoming traffic when my mom yanked on the wheel to prevent a head-on collision and we found ourselves yet again facing the steep ditch filled with water.  After a third pull, the car started to roll.  I watched in stunned silence as my mom put her hands on the roof as we were flipping through the air.  The front passenger side of the car connected with the ground and my sister, who was sitting there, had her window rolled all the way down.  Pieces of gravel and glass were flying everywhere and I closed my eyes for what felt like forever, but when I opened them, the car was still rolling.  I now understand the slow motion effect in movies, because being in the car felt exactly like that.  I remember watching the ground coming closer and the windshield shattering.  I was then soaked by the cooler that flew from the back.  It hit me in the face and gave me a bruise on my right cheek.  I was expecting my life to flash in front of my eyes like so many people have claimed to experience when in a situation like this, but it never did.  Then the car finally came to a stop right side up on the wrong side of the road.  The next thing I knew, my mom was screaming to get out of the car, because a semi had just reached the top of the hill and it wasn't appearing to be slowing down at all.  My sister yelled for my mom because her door was jammed shut.  My mom ran over, and somehow with all her adrenaline, lifted my sister out of the passenger side window.  By the time we reached the side of the road, the brakes on the semi were squealing.  The huge vehicle came to a stop about 15 feet from our car.
   When I looked around, I realized that people were running toward me and my family, who were on the side of the road trying wrap our heads around what just happened.  As a lady approached us, she explained that she was an off duty EMT and already called an ambulance.  After establishing that we were all okay, my family laughed at me for being drenched in water from the cooler.  I then turned to my sister, Ashley, and saw blood all over her arm and pointed to it.  She looked down and turned as white as a ghost when she realized that her arm was bleeding.  The off duty EMT lady told Ashley to put her arm above her head, so the blood would stop flowing to her arm and she wouldn't lose more blood.
The ambulances arrived and had us lay down on hard stretchers. We couldn't lay directly on the stretchers because if our backs were injured it would have been extremely painful.  Once I laid down, they put a neck brace on, and several other braces that I had no idea what their purpose was.  The EMTs were talking to me and asking me if I hurt anywhere.  Once they established that I wasn’t badly hurt, they took my mind off of things.  One girl EMT was complimenting me on my nail polish and asking me all sorts of questions. Since I couldn't turn my head in the neck brace, I focused on the clouds in the sky and the woman’s voice as multiple straps and hands were making sure I was secured.  After being strapped in, they lifted me onto a stretcher and wheeled me to the ambulance.  Once I was hoisted up in the ambulance, they put a pulse detector on my finger.  I don't remember much from the ambulance ride.  I think it was because I was either in shock, or my adrenaline was high.  The only two things I do remember is that there were buttons everywhere, and that my back was really sore by the time we arrived to the hospital because of the hard stretcher I was laying on.
I was the first one to arrive at the hospital and the doctors immediately took me to a room with a huge scan machine.  I don’t know what kind of scan it was, because the abbreviated letters didn’t mean much to me at that time.  After multiple scans, it was time for x-rays.  Something was wrong with the x-ray machine, so it took longer than normal.  All I wanted to do was get off of the extremely uncomfortable stretcher.  After x-rays, I was able to go to a room and finally get into a comfy bed.  Laying in the bed felt great and one of the doctors brought me a heated blanket and many choices of food.  There were hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, mac n' cheese, and other foods that looked very appetizing.  After eating, the nurse came in, updated me on how my family was doing, and asked if I was hurting anywhere else. The only one of us who was hurt was my sister Ashley, and she only had scrapes on her arm that didn't even need stitches.    She told me that it was a miracle that we were even alive, let alone not severely injured at all since the car rolled 4 times. The lady told me I was free to get up and walk to the bathroom, or the place where more food was in the hallway if I needed.
When I stood up, I realized I had glass in my feet.  I hopped back onto the bed as quickly as I could and looked at my foot.  Without the gory details, my foot was glistening in the light.  I called for the nurse and told her what was wrong.  She was surprised I didn’t feel it before and brought over a bucket of warm water.  The nurse had me soak my feet for 10 minutes, so my skin would soften and most the glass would fall out on its own. Once the 10 minutes wound down, the nurse returned with tweezers and went to work.  She got most of the glass out and told me to soak my feet in hot water every night and use a tweezers where I needed until I didn’t feel glass anymore. 
After the lady left, the cop came in.  The only question I remember him asking me was if I was wearing a seatbelt.  I answered yes right away, but right after I said it, I realized I didn't actually remember if I did or not, since I did unbuckle to reach the Coke.  I thought of all the commercials and ads emphasizing the importance of wearing a seatbelt.  Those infomercials stated that without a seatbelt, you would be tossed around the car, or even ejected from the car.  I was reassured with remembering that information and the guilt began to go away, since I was not tossed around the car. 
  As a result of my car accident, I try to live every day knowing that I'm lucky to have it.  The muscles in my cheek were weakened by the bruise I had and in result, I have a little dimple there.  Every time I see my dimple, or my friends joke about it, I can't help but smile and feel sentimental.  It's a constant reminder that life is fragile and more important than most people realize.  I hope that I take advantage of every day, appreciate the little things, and the moments life has to offer.