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.