Most people around here worship Texas high school football like the ancient Greeks might have worshipped Zeus himself. For me football was just the precursor for what was yet to come; high school basketball. Giving my friends no choice but to attend every tournament and travel countless miles to away games, they too became part of the whole ritual and I loved it!
             The anticipation for the games got to be like it it gets for a small child waiting to open presents on Christmas morning, but one night that weekly anticipation ended. I consider this more of a beginning actually, the start of a new life. Two thousand pounds of twisted metal and broken glass should be enough for anybody to stop and think. That is exactly what I did.
             The truck hit us so quickly, yet I remember each second as if it were an eternity. This accident was not in my game plan and I felt angry simply because this type of thing did not happen to me. The thoughts that went through my mind were not about my grades or the things I had not done for school. My thoughts were directed toward my dad and how he would be worried that I was not home yet. I had not forgiven someone whom I loved. I wondered where I would be if I did not make it out alive. Then, the impact stopped and I was okay. The ambulance came and took away my best friend who was incoherent. Frightened, I prayed harder than I had ever prayed before because this time it was serious.
             I came face to face with my mortality for the first time in my life. I came to realize that guarantees in life do not exist and like my father always told me, "in one second your life can be changed forever." When I drove too fast through the neighborhood he would ask, "How would you feel the rest of your life if you hit a child?" One second can dictate your life; your existence and that scared me. My life changed in a second, but I was lucky because mine changed for the better.
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