Have you ever been involved in some serious wrongdoing? What lesson did you learn from the experience?
Highway to Death
Making mistakes is a natural part of life, since learning from them helps us to progress. My love for speed started while I was a young girl. I enjoyed watching car races and was fond of playing car speeding games, unlike other girls my age who had a passion for dolls. When my dad noticed my interest, he would take me to the rally competition each year.
Five months after my dad’s funeral, I decided to take his 504 Peugeot for a ride. After I had done about 3 miles from home, I pressed on the gas pedal to the far end, shifting gears at an interval of 5 seconds. For a while it felt awesome, but I was starting to get scared, and when the speed approached the 87 mph mark, I could see a grave sign blinking on the dashboard.
A dark cloud covered the sky, and for seconds there was a pin drop silence. I drove past a red light at a crossroad, and from the passenger window I could see a trailer driving towards me. My head hit hard on the steering wheel and the shards of broken glass spewed in all direction. From a distance, I could hear the ambulance siren and a male voice that kept repeating the words “you are going to be alright, hold on, we are almost there”. My whole body was numb, and at some point I thought was dying.
Yes, I still love fast cars and cool stunts performed by great drivers, but I chose to be on the spectator side of it all. I fully recovered after 15 months, but I will never forget that deadly ordeal that almost took my life. Observing speed limits and traffic lights have become a compulsory routine to my driving.