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Ryan Moore

English 1100

Writing Project 1

September 21, 2016

Always Wear a Seatbelt

I learned a very important lesson the hard way when I was only four years old. It all started

when my mom and grandma made the decision to take us to the fair and it ended with a visit to

the emergency room. I learned the important lesson of always wearing your seat belt and always

sitting in a seat while the car is moving.

In 1999 I was only four years old. My mom and grandmother decided to take me, some of

my aunts and uncles, and my brother to the fair. We all piled into an old black van and started on

our way to the fair. Now this van was full of stuff, which included laundry baskets full of clothes

and a car jack which would be important in me learning this lesson. The basket full of clothes

and the car jack would change my life forever. My grandma was driving the van and she was not

very good at driving this big van. So after we were all in we started on our way to the fair.

The van was so full of people that there were not enough seats for everyone so one of my

aunts decided to sit on one of the baskets full of clothes. Now me being only four I saw my aunt

doing this and thought it would be fun so I decided to unbuckle my seatbelt. Then I decided to

follow my aunt and sit on one of the baskets of clothes. Little did I know at the time that this

decision would change my life forever.

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Everything was going well. I was on my way to the fair with my family and was one happy

kid. I thought I was cool because I was not in a seat and was sitting on a basket full of clothes.

Then as we were driving down the road a car turned out in front of us and my grandma had to hit

the brakes hard to avoid hitting a car in front of us. When she hit the brakes hard the basket I was

sitting on tipped over. When the basket tipped over it sent me flying head first onto the car jack.

My head hit the jack hard and my head was cut open. I started crying and blood started to come

down from the cut in my forehead over my face and blood was getting everywhere.

When my head hit the jack I started screaming and my aunt was yelling at my mom and

grandma that I had hit my head. My mom jumped out of the car and ran around to the back of the

van to see what was going on. When she opened the door she saw me with blood all over my

head and face and blood all over the floor. She grabbed one of the clean shirt out of the laundry

basket and put it on my forehead to control the bleeding. After my mom had cleaned of some of

the blood and got to see the how bad my head was cut she told my grandma that we had to go to

the hospital. My mom put me on her lap in the front seat and we sped off to the hospital to get

my head looked at.

So we had to make a detour to the hospital and were not able go to the fair which made me

sad because I was looking forward to go to the fair. We arrived at the hospital and got checked

in. They took a look at my head and said that I had to get stitches. So they took me and my mom

back to a room. They laid me down on a table and began to get all the instruments ready that

they needed to stitch up my head. Then they turned on a bright light and pointed it at my head.

Then they covered up my head and face so they only had the cut exposed. Then they began to

give me stitches which was the most painful thing I had ever experienced. Since I had cut my

head they couldn’t really numb they are so when they began to stitch up my head I could feel
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everything they were doing. I was crying and screaming the whole time they were stitching up

my head. Then after they were done giving me stitches I got some good news that turned me

from a sad to a happy kid.

My mom and grandma told me that we were still going to the fair since I had been a good

boy while I was getting stitches. After they had told me that I was a happy kid once again and

forgot everything that had just happened to me. So we all piled back into the van, which my

grandma had tried to clean, and my mom made sure I was in a seat with a seatbelt on and started

on our way to the fair. When we finally made it to the fair it was dark outside. Even though it

was dark that did not stop me from having fun with my family. I rode rides and played games

and won prizes and after everything that had happened was happy once again.

So at the end of the day I learned a very important lesson the hard way. The lesson I

learned was to always stay in your seat with your seatbelt fastened and do not unbuckle or get

out of your seat until the car is stopped and at the destination. So I will never forget this day or

the lesson it taught me. Now every time I get in a car I make sure that I always have my seatbelt

buckled before the car starts moving so I do not have to go through this again.