The Day I Got Hit

By Sara

Tires screeching. Running. Honking. Thud! On the ground. Pain. Limping now.

On August 17, 200 I got hit. I was on my way to summer school. I had just gotten off the bus and was getting ready to cross the street. The light was still green when I started to cross.

It was at the corner of Watt & Whitney and I was half way across the street when the light changed. As the cars started going, I started running. When a car just barely missed me I thought "Oh man I'm gonna get hit!" So I started running faster. I was focused only on getting across the street so I didn't see the truck until it was too late. I saw it out of the corner of my eye just moments before we collided.

It was a company truck. It was a bright green Ford F-150 with the company logo on the side. As we hit, I nose-dived onto the pavement before me. With pain surging through my entire body I slowly got up and started to limp to the curb of the 7-11 on the other side of the street. I sat down waiting for the massive, pounding, agonizing pain in my right knee and hip to cease. The man in the green truck pulled up to the curb where I was sitting.

The man rushed out of the truck and up to me asking, "Are you alright?" Concern was etched deep in his face. He was in his mid- to late 30's, about 5'4" with sandy blonde hair and kind bluish- gray eyes.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." I answered shaking my head to clear it but not looking up into his face.

"I'd better call the paramedics," he muttered turning to his cell phone.

My head was spinning with so many different thoughts at one time that I thought my head would explode. " But I'm fine. I told you that already! and Oh my God, what if mom finds out? What am I gonna do then?" I was thinking the whole time he was on the phone.

When he got off the phone he got into his First-Aid kit and got out a gauze for the few abrasions on my upper lip and nose. When the paramedics arrived, there were two of them, male and female. The man was in his late 20's to his early 30's, he was about 5'7" with brunette hair. The woman was in her early to mid 30's; she was 5 foot nothing and she was also a brunette. They felt my neck, hip, knee and wrist. They also kept asking me questions like, "What's your name? How old are you? Where do you live and what's your phone number? and Where does it hurt?"

I answered all these questions as best as I could while I was thinking, "Why can't you ask me these questions later, when I'm not all shook up?" The paramedics called my mother to ask her if they could transport me to the hospital, but my mother was just a few minutes away and she said she would take me to the hospital. She took me to Point West Kaiser Hospital. There the doctors checked me over and x-rayed my wrist, and then I was told I could go home.

On the way home I sat there looking out the window absent-mindedly as we passed other cars and buildings. I was so lost in thought that I didn't realize that we had gotten home. I was thinking about the day's events and what could've happened. I was also thinking about the future.

On this note I would like to say a few things. You must cherish everything that happens to you, good or bad. And please listen to this one thing. Wisdom does not come naturally, but it is earned, through experiences. This is one little bit of wisdom that I have earned. Live through each day with the fact that you may not live to see the next. Live through each day knowing that it may be your last. Life is precious, like that rarest stone or the best national treasure on the face of the earth. Live with love in your heart and not hate, because you don't know what might be your fate.