Impatient

Impatient

It was just a normal weekday in my teenage life. I had just picked up my youngest brother Daniel, who was 7 at the time, from football practice accompanied by my other brother Mike, who was just 14 years old. It had not been long that I had been driving, maybe about a month. At the time I did not realize how much responsibility driving was and I appreciated my parent’s decision to let me drive because it showed that they had confidence in me as well as believed in me. Being a young teenager though, I did not fully understand that because my mind was clouded with the thought of me having my own car. This meant I wouldn’t have to ask my parents for rides anymore and I would be more independent. Still, like I said, I took the new responsibility they had bestowed upon me lightly and most of the time I would drive recklessly. So the incident that was soon to happen should not have come as a surprise.

            It was senior year in high school and I had just recently gotten my first job at Vons. The problem was that it was in Camarillo, the city next to Oxnard. My parents were obviously very busy with their own work schedules probably would not have been able to drive me over to Camarillo every time I had to work, so they decided to get me a car. I had wanted a car for a while, so when I got the 95 Nissan Sentra I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. It wasn’t a looker, but it drove and that’s all that really mattered to me at the time. Since I had been working, I decided I wanted to get a cool new phone, specifically an “IPhone”. The problem was that some of the stores in town were out of stock at the time. I tried Wal-Mart, but they were also out. They told me to try the Simi Valley Wal-Mart so they gave them a call to confirm they had it. Being so impatient and having all the tools in my reach, I decided my brothers and I were all going to go to Simi Valley to get my “IPhone”.

 It was about five in the afternoon and there was a lot of traffic on Rose Avenue, one of the busier streets in Oxnard. As we waited in traffic, I grew more and more impatient since I was so anxious to get on the freeway and start heading over there. Additionally, it had to be quick also because I wanted to go home before my parents realized we were out long. Since I had not been driving long and I was with my brothers, I knew they would definitely not approve of me going all the way to Simi Valley. I didn’t care though; I was going to do it behind their back, and be back before they even noticed. We came closer to the freeway and there was only one light left before the freeway entrance. There were a couple cars in front of us when the light turned green. When the car in front of me started going, I started going but as we picked up speed, I suddenly saw the light turn yellow. When the car in front of me maintained their speed, I was sure it was going to go on the yellow light. I quickly had the brilliant idea of trying to sneak behind it, past the yellow light. When suddenly I saw the red glaring lights from behind the car stare me down. I felt time slowing down as I transferred my foot from the gas pedal over to the break. As I felt the pedal touch the car floor, my hands gripped the steering wheel, my teeth clenched, and my eyes closed as if I was preparing for a punch to the face. Slowly opening them, I saw that it was a little too late. My car had crashed straight into the back of the SUV in front of me. Time stopped as I looked up and at that very moment I was not mad at anybody but myself so I let out a big “f” word out of frustration. I look to my right and on my brother Mike’s face was a look of shock. I notice he had some blood trickling down from his forehead. I quickly handed him a napkin and dialed 911.

“Are you okay?” I asked in a shaky voice. “I'm good” he replied. Then I looked back to my younger brother, Daniel. He had the same look on his face but seemed to be okay.

Walking outside I could smell smoke coming from what was once considered the hood. The damage didn’t seem to be that bad, but it was still substantial. The lady from the car in front of me got out and we asked each other if we were okay. The firemen, police, and ambulance came within minutes. They seemed to be very calm, which was surprising to me at the time because I was far from it. Later, I realized that it is obvious because they experience accidents a lot and it was nothing new to them. Not sure if my car was drivable, I took the chance to start it because the firemen told me to move out of traffic and park at a nearby gas station. I was afraid my car would explode like you see in the action movies.

As I drove it to the gas station, the thought of telling my parents soon overpowered any other. I had not thought about it but I knew I was dead. I had to tell them; there was no way I couldn’t, so as soon as I got to the gas station I called. They sounded worried, but not mad at all. I was surprised for I was sure I was going to get an earful. As they treated my brothers, I spoke to the police and they asked if I wanted to file a police report. Thankfully the lady was nice enough not to file a police report against me. We exchanged information and she was on her way since her car did not have any major damage. Being a bigger, more elevated, SUV all it got was scratch on the bumper and of course, my car got the worst of it. When my dad got to the scene, he determined my car was good enough to drive home so we wouldn’t need a tow truck. As soon as Mike got the ok from the firemen, we left home. When I arrived I expected to really hear it from my parents, but again to my surprise they weren’t mad at all. They just told me to be more careful and aware of what I was doing. I think they might have expected me to mess up somewhere along the line so they weren’t too surprised. My dad and I eventually fixed my car and I drove again a couple of months, this time with a new perspective and outlook. I learned many things through this experience that I will not forget. I learned to be more patient, careful, responsible, and that driving is not an easy thing because you can severely hurt people, especially the ones you love the most.

Karen

              Karen recently graduated from Hueneme High School in 2011. She is a full time employee at the Hispanic super market, Tresierras, as well as a full time student at Oxnard College. On her down time, she likes to hang out with her friends and attend social gatherings. Her family, especially her mother, motivate her to attend OC. Attending three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaves her the remaining days of the week to go to work. Her job and school really keep her busy throughout the week so she hardly has time to see her family, but she does when she can. Her mother is her role model in her life, and she considers herself a mentor to her little sister. Three words that would describe her are happy, helpful, and caring. In 5 years, Karen sees herself graduated from college and living in her dream city, Los Angeles. She lives by one motto and that is “no sacrifice, no victory.” She likes that OC is close to her home, but she would like the bathrooms not to be so hidden. Since she feels Mexican’s are considered a minority here in the US, she is motivated by her Mexican culture to attend college and live up to her potential. Her biggest surprise about her college experience is that she has been able to wake up at 8 am for class. 

Texting Frenzy

              Texting has become one of todays most used ways of communication. Even though it’s not very popular with older people, younger generations and teenagers have really adopted it. It has really become a more efficient way to communicate. A simple text message can be much easier to send than email, and much less time consuming than a phone call. I can see how many people can find texting useful. Doctors can use them to get informed of an emergency, replacing the popular “pagers” from the nineties. It is mainly more popular with teenagers though because of them being more social. Even though texting has been around for a long time, it just barely became popular in the last couple of years. Cell phone companies have made this movement easier by introducing cell phones made specifically for texting. Cell phones with full keyboards have really paved the way for this movement. Cellular service companies have also contributed by providing unlimited texting plans to go along with the newest phones. Even though it is really efficient, it also has a downfall. Like many good things in life it can also be a bad thing. Many fatal accidents have occurred in recent years due to texting while driving. This has led to many deaths and in turn, many new laws against texting while driving being established in many states. 

Reality Tv

I do watch reality shows every once in a while. Mainly when I am bored and there is nothing to watch on television and I find myself skimming through the channels. I usually tune to MTV, which stands for Music Television. They have some pretty funny reality shows like, The Jersey Shore. It is hard to watch a reality show sometimes though, because it might be half way through the season and you have no idea what it is about or what is even going on. I have seen some reality shows in the past from beginning to end. The reason for that though, is because I feel like if I start something I have to finish it, even if it’s a reality show. Mainly though, it’s a casual thing and I only watch reality shows at the end of the day when I get to unwind. Life can get so busy and hectic sometimes that I don’t even have time for television.

              I think the producers and the Hollywood big shots really work hard and strive to make their reality shows really exciting and sometimes even suspenseful. I can say that some shows have grabbed my attention like that before. I'm sure they edit many scenes to make things seem crazier than it actually is. Some of that stuff is probably even staged and the people on the shows are probably acting. You can never tell for sure because some actors are really good actors. Regardless, people still watch and the television networks ultimately get their ratings.

               I think this type of show has the potential to harm our society but television ratings and other factor make it very controllable. Some might argue that certain shows might harm our youth. I think they have made great strides over the years to prevent younger people to watch these. For one, most shows that are not suitable for younger people come out late at night, probably past any appropriate bed time for and young person. Another thing is a lot of televisions now have parental controls which allow the parents to control what their children watch and what they don’t. Now, TV shows even have warnings and ratings at the beginning of the show to warn people viewing, that show might not be suitable for young ones. Yes people may think that reality shows might be harmful to our society, but I think that is why the electronic companies made an on and off button on the remote control. There is also a wide variety of channels. Just in case there is a reality show going on in one channel that you might not like, you can change the channel. I think people exaggerate when they say these types of shows are bad because everyone has a choice. Parents have ways to prevent their children from watching shows they don’t want them to watch. As for me, I might watch an episode or two of a certain reality series and maybe one day I’ll come across a reality show that interests me enough to follow it completely, but for now it’s just casual viewing.