The Accident

Today, I had my first (and i hope the last) car accident. I don't think my senses have ever reached a height it did like this morning. What's funny is that I almost felt it coming, as though I had warning signs.

I woke up, had everything ready to go, and left fairly on time. As I was leaving, my mother told me to "text when you get to campus safely". I drive an hour and a half each way, and have been doing so for a while. I felt weird when she said that because she doesn't usually say that unless I go somewhere new. I casually said "ok" and went out the door.

I was driving along listening to religious hymns (anasheed) and Holy recitations of the Qur'an, as I do each morning. Somehow, it's like a security blanket for me. I'm not the most religious person but when you drive 3 hours round trip, you have alot of time to think, reflect, ponder, etc. I try to make it somewhat spiritual. Somehow today felt funny. I felt like I needed more help/security...I was looking at each driver that passed and that was behind me just to be aware of my surroundings, so to speak.

"Text me when you get to campus safely..." randomly went off in my head.

I get to the stoplight where I would make a left to enter the highway. A 1998 crown victoria pulled up behind me, waiting to make a left also. In front of me was like a miniature pick-up truck for midgets with all kinds of poles and construction gear in the bed. I'm sitting and for whatever reason, look in the rear-view mirror. I see 2 men and got a weird vibe from them. It's so hard to describe but if I had to pick a word that came to mind after looking at them, it would be "danger".

Light turned green...

I'm crawling forward, easing my foot of the break, getting ready to accelerate. God knows why, but some person in the front of the line stopped or slowed down abruptly. I was probably the 5th car in line. It was a chain reaction. The guy in front of me slammed his break, I slammed mine to avoid running into him...

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The car behind me slammed me from behind. It was a loud popping noise where I literally felt the car shake. I pulled over, in shock. I had my seatbelt on so thankfully the impact didn't make me slip forward too much, risking hitting myself on like the steering wheel. I put my hazard lights on and sat in shock.

All I hear is the clicking noise of my hazard lights, the Qur'an (surah "ya-sin") in the background, and the last thing my mom told me "text me when you get to campus safely". I finally pulled myself together and walked to the back of my car to examine the damage. I am so thankful God protected me the way He did. It could have been alot worse. I stared at my shattered, dented, scuffed, cracked, unhinged bumper...the back, passenger side door had a huge dent in the middle. Seeing all of that set off a plethora of emotion within me. I sat in my car, tearing up, knowing very well what could have happened and how thankful I am to be okay. I'm usually one to exaggerate but when I was describing it on the phone to my family and when they saw it in person, it turned out i made it seem less than what it was. We did the exchange process blah blah blah...

I somehow was able to drive my car to school and make it safely, as my mom wished. Most of the drive consisted of tears running down my face continuously. I was not ready to let go of what I had just experienced. It's like they always say: "it happens so quick". I skipped my first class, went to the next, unable to concentrate. The scene kept replaying in my head. I pieced together the hunches I had that something bad was going to happen or rather, that I sensed danger.

I am so thankful to be alright. I know this happened for a reason. My head's been spinning all day. I even went to work after all of that and still went back to those thoughts.

I pray something good will come from all of this.