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Maria Flores

Mr. Price

AP English; Period Six

31 October 2017

The Accident

Many people go through different things, but at the end of the day everyone's life should

be valued. I don’t remember much when I was born; different circumstances led to my father

gaining full custody of me. I was too young to notice my mother wasn’t there, but every girl

deserves a mother. Mine came around when I was a year old. She may not be my blood, but

from the first day she met me she took me in. In the beginning I was weary, but as soon as she

married my father she became my mother.

Although I did have a mother, I was left with insecurities. Growing up I always needed

more attention and reassurance that I was loved. This wasn’t an issue until I hit my teenage years

and it started affecting my mental health. Growing up I had a carefree attitude towards life, but

as I got older I started to care. I saw my lack of confidence right in front of me and I didn’t know

how to deal with it. I looked for love from other people, including boys who had the wrong

intentions, causing me to fall deeper into my suicidal thoughts. Everything in my life was

building up, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I decided my life wasn’t worth living. I hadn’t attempted anything, but even the thought

of contemplating suicide which was blurted out to my grandma sent me to the hospital. Thats

where I broke down and everything I had been holding in all these years came out. I confessed to
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self-harming and the thought of not living being satisfying. My parents took me to counseling,

but it wasn’t the right fit for me. Being told that the only cure was medicine wasn’t appealing.

Although, I was able to confess what I was going through to my parents and being ok with the

idea of living it didn’t help with me being depressed. I felt like I was living for others and not

myself.

My whole mindset was changed in one split second. It was Friday April 21, 2017. It was

the day I got my license and was told I had gotten my first job. My seventeenth birthday was just

a few days away. Everything seemed to be going great; I had celebrated getting my license at

Chick-fil-A and was going to Panda Express for a celebratory dinner. In fact, everything was too

perfect for anything bad to happen. I took a photo with a huge proud smile on my face. I

excitedly called my Dad, informing him about my first job.

All of a sudden, there was a deafening boom. As I sat in the passenger seat, I looked to

my Mom, with a perplexed and frantic facial expression. The vehicle skidded along the highway

as it veered to the left. Then there was two more impacts. During these additional impacts my

mother and I looked at each other, screamed, and started crying. My Mom had taken her hands

off the steering wheel and put her hands up as if she was surrendering, while she let her foot off

the gas. I put my legs on the dashboard to stop myself from flinging wildly like a noodle. I put

my right arm out against the door to brace myself. During all of this, I yelled out “Dad” in a

terrified tone as I cried hysterically. My mom screamed out “Alan!”. I saw the face of a young

blonde woman as our vehicle came in contact with hers. She, too, was perplexed, but also

seemed a little angry as she put her hands up as if to say “what is going on?”. After our vehicle

hit two others, it finally came to a stop. When our vehicle stopped I could hear my younger
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brother crying and screaming “My head, my head!”. I grabbed my shoe, which had ended up by

my Mom’s foot.

I sat there and just stared and cried as I saw a young man running towards our vehicle. He

opened the car door and asked, “Is there a child back there?”

My Mom responded with, “Yes”.

He then asked, “Can I cut anything”.

My Mom said, “Yes, do whatever you need to do”.

I finally stepped out of the vehicle. Next thing I knew I was surrounded by policemen,

and soon firemen. We had been rear-ended. I stood there crying, trying to make sense of it all.

Someone told my mother and I to sit. I sat down, and I was soon being examined by firemen,

and questioned by police. I answered all the questions between my sobs.

“Do you have any pain? Where are you hurting?” , asked a fireman.

I responded saying, “My nose, my back, and my right elbow”.

While sitting on the ground a fireman sat behind me, held my neck, and said “Talk

without moving your body, try not to move your body.”

At this point my mind was racing. It felt like my nose was bleeding because I had hit my

face on my knee. I thought my neck was broken, because the fireman held my neck upright. I

had a sharp pain in my right elbow. How could the best day ever turn into the worst?

Soon, another fireman sat by me and examined my ears to make sure there weren’t any

fluids. He poked, and pushed on the areas I said hurt and asked where it hurt the most.

“What’s your name?”, a fireman asked.

“Maria Flores” , I responded.

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“What’s your date of birth?”, he asked.

Me: “April twenty fifth 2000”, I told him.

“How old are you?”, he asked.

“Sixteen, about to me seventeen in a few days.”, I responded as I started to cry once

again. I was then handed a tag, and told, “Keep this with you.”.

My teeth chattered, the hair on my skin raised, as I sat answering questions. A kind

woman had her son, the young man I had seen running towards us, get her jacket from her car

and hand it to me.

“How fast would you say you were going?”, asked a police woman.

I responded, “About forty or forty-five”.

“How fast do you think the car that hit you was going?”, she asked.

I replied, “At least eighty.”

Sitting there behind me the fireman asked, “Is that the car you were in?”

I replied “Yeah” in a somber tone.

“Wow, you’re lucky. Cars nowadays are built to crumble around people that’s a good

thing.”, he replied.

A medic came over and explained, “We are going to put a neck brace on you. It’s a

protocol for accidents.” The neck brace was put on me. The medic then said “We’re going to put

you on a backboard and strap you. We just want you to lay back when we tell you.” I complied. I

was then told, “You’re going to stay on the backboard and we’re going to put you on the bench,

you’re brother will be on the gurney, and your mom will be with you guys.”
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As they placed me in the ambulance the kind lady walked over, and asked “What’s your

name?”

I responded with, “Maria”.

She responded, “Maria, I’m Michelle, the person that ran to your car is my son, his name

is Sky, he’s fifteen.”

“It’s good to know that there are kind, people like him in the world.”, is what I replied

with.

While I was alone in the ambulance my auntie popped in, and she immediately started

crying. On the way to the hospital, I was given morphine and had an IV put in me to help with

the pain. As the medic was putting morphine into the syringe a drop fell on my brother and he

said, “You spilled a drop on my leg.”

The medic responded with, “Do you know the street value of what just fell on your leg?!

My mom, and I laughed. My brother asked questions such as “When are we going home? Who’s

driving?” The responses to his questions included “Not for a long time buddy. It’s going to be a

long night.” and “ Casper is driving.”

At the hospital I had x-rays done. The doctor broke it to me, “So there isn’t a clear break

in your elbow, but there is a start of a fluid path, so we’re going to put you in a splint.” I was

happy to hear that it wasn’t clearly broken. I was the last to be discharged from the hospital. As, I

walked out I was greeted by my loving family. My three aunts from my Dad's side, both my

uncles from my Mom's side, and both sets of grandparents. Despite the tragic accident, I still

managed to smile.
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The accident affected six cars and because we were the first hit we were badly affected.

Thankfully we walked away with minor injuries. But while I was sitting there looking at how

damaged our vehicle was when I realized there was a chance we couldn’t be alive.

That was my rude awakening. I finally realized that life was worth living, because there

are many circumstances that can take it away in an instance. I had been through a lot in my short

life. But when you are faced with unwanted death the little things you thought mattered don’t.

The boys that had affected me in high school wouldn’t be in my life five years from now, so I

shouldn’t let them influence my mental health. I’d always be insecure, but I was surrounded by

family who loved me endlessly. In this day and time I value life and all it has to offer. My ideas

of what’s important bloomed. And I knew I didn’t want to end life early. I think every child

deserves to be loved. I want to be an advocate for children and families who are experiencing a

rough time in life. I want to be an example of it can be better and it will get better.
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