Two months ago I was in a car wreck. I was the only car involved, and while I was of course held liable because it was a one car accident I was not written any citations or told there was anything I could do. Here is what happened and how.
At Mizzou in October racial threats and discord were everywhere. Riots and disrespect from both sides, really. So much was happening it was hard to know what was true or false. One night things got really bad when a student from Rolla (Missouri S&T) posted threats on Mizzou's yik yak app (an anonymous app based on location). The first threat said something to the effect of "Some of you are fine to come to school tomorrow. Others probably shouldn't". In the end the guy was trying to be funny, but I know someone who says he went to high school with him (my friend went to Wentzville Holt, although I haven't verified his story) who said he was charged with terrorist threats.
Rumors and yik yaks (maybe by the same person I don't know) were going around from all sides. I read a few saying the Greeks would be targeted since we are supposedly the white privileged group of the university. A few posts were threats naming specific sororities and saying they would be the first to go, next to go, etc. It bothers me that we were targeted because really, if you are blessed enough to attend college you are privileged whether you pay it all or you have grants. Unfortunately in our country higher education is a privilege not a guarantee. As far as being Greek, it is rude stereotyping to assume that all PHA and IFC members are rich and white. Personally I know many diverse backgrounds in the Greek system, and I also know that many of us pay for our membership out of our own pockets with little or no help from our parents.
I probably would have been fine, no one got hurt. But it is nerve racking not only to think there a person or persons are out there blood thirsty, but also because by that point there was so much information as o what was going on outside our dorms (which we were told it was in our best interests not to leave). In my dorm we all gathered in the common areas with our hall staff and tried to keep up to date with Twitter from our authoritative figures and Mizzou mass notifications. But when it got really confusing and scary was when our student body president, Peyton Head, posted on his Twitter saying that the KKK had been confirmed sighted on campus by a "reliable source" and he was in contact with the feds. Around 30 to 40 minutes later he posted a sincere apology saying that his source was misinformed and he was sorry for causing any fear. From now on we were to receive information only from Mizzou Police.
Many teachers individually sent emails cancelling their classes, although Mizzou did not officially cancel classes. Even the ones who did hold class didn't enforce attendance policies, it seemed. So instead of staying in my dorm and looking over my shoulder all the time I decided that with my classes cancelled I would drive the two hours back home and return when it had passed.
I slept for 4 hours. My (now ex-) boyfriend at the time and I fought late into the night passionately over the current events. I would not have been able to sleep much anyway because I kept checking for updates. It turns out he was a pretty strong racist, no matter how \he tried to deny it, he made it clear in the way he phrased things and how he treated blacks. And that is not okay to me. Besides some abuse and the fact that he cheated (which I learned later), that is one of the main reasons I dumped him. I am not saying the actions of anyone, white or black, were right. But I am saying that disrespect from one human to another is rude and uncalled for.
So I went home. How do these events relate to my accident? Well, I stayed one night at home and got 9 hours of quality sleep the night before I drove back to Mizzou in hopes the worst of it was over. I did not feel tired. But the lack of sleep from two nights before must've caught up with me because they say I must have fallen asleep for no longer than a minute. Just long enough for my left set of tires to go off the road into the grass. I quickly realized where I was, and I got scared because I didn't remember falling asleep or how I had gotten off the road. I over-corrected with a sharp turn right. I spun out. At around 8:30pm I went left back off the side of the road, this time under the median cable and across opposing traffic on I-70. I was going 75 miles an hour. My windshield shattered when my car, by some miracle, squeezed under the median cables. It all happened in a minute or so. My car stopped on the right shoulder of the other direction of traffic, facing the direction of traffic even. If you hadn't seen me come across or the oil leaking from my punctured oil pan you might have thought I just pulled over. The police came very quickly thanks to whatever Samaritan saw it and called.
I declined medical attention. I had not hit any other cars which is a blessing because I would not be able to live with myself if I had hurt someone else. After a long ordeal and having my car towed back to my house I got a ride back to Mizzou. I did not attend my classes the next day because I was still in shock. Afraid to leave my room, even. I should've died in that wreck; even the tow truck driver told my parents in private that he had never seen someone walk away from a wreck like mine. My car was totaled and will be going to salvage in the next week or two. I am getting a new one, which is good because the remains of car in my garage scare me everytime I see them, and I emotionally can never handle sitting in the driver's seat where it all happened again.
I drove home to be safe. And by some irony I returned very unsafely. All things considered it could have been so much worse for me. Now every time I pass that mile marker I look and see the remnants of the wreck fading away. At first there were tire ruts where my car squished into the grass to fit under the cables. And there was half of my front end....sitting right under the now-loose cables right there in the median. Black skid marks on the other side of the road. The mile number will always be branded in my memory. So yes, I am glad my car is being replaced, because after those two days of fear ending with that, the car holds nothing but bad memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment