Welcome back to the Miss 20 Something Series! This is the series where I will be sharing my trials and tribulations for the next decade. I treat this series as “story time,” so it is as informal as informal gets. My mood was ruined directly before typing this, so I’ll try my best to still be an effective storyteller.
Yes, I moved into my first apartment! I go to school about two hours away from my hometown and commuting is not for me. Nor was living on campus an option anymore, way too much money. I do have three roommates to help with the rent here, but no horror stories on that end. Surprisingly, today’s story is not about moving or the apartment.
I have managed to get into two separate car accidents within the first two weeks of living here. I’ve been driving for four years and have never been in one before this. Not even as a passenger. But here I am, hours away from home, on my own, and my car is in the shop. STORY TIME!
Ain’t No Way
Ok, so the first car accident was not my fault. It was a hot afternoon, bumper to bumper traffic, the first day of back to school for K-12, the day before my first day as a junior year of college. I was down the street from my new apartment, y’all heard me, down the street. Literally, two turns away. I’m on a hands-free phone call with my mom when I’m inching up towards the next intersection. The next thing I know, I hear a car accident behind me. As I go to tell my mother, my car is pushed forward. They had the nerve to hit me in the back!
I was the lead car, so out of the four cars involved in the accident, I was the last to be hit. This also means I was the only car not riding anybody’s tail. But I digress.
I hang up with my mom and immediately call my older brother. He was on his way to my apartment too. The car he was driving was full of furniture. Now, I’ve never been in a car accident before so I’m looking around just gasped.
My brother starts yelling about getting the other drivers’ names, registrations, insurances, and pictures of the accident. Mind you, I am inept when it comes to cars. I know absolutely nothing other than how to drive an automatic and pump gas (I only learned how to pump gas maybe a year ago.) But I’m transparent about that, I own it. So I did my best with it all. Luckily my car had no visible damage and I was able to go on with the rest of my day.
Runaway Car
So about a week and a half later, it’s a quiet Saturday morning. But my anxiety is through the roof as I’m driving back from Target with a full-sized mirror in my back seat. I mean I even paid for insurance on the thing. I was that scared.
One thing to understand, my parking space at my apartment building is on the curve of a hill. A mini hill but still a hill that gravity acts upon. I managed to only get the mirror into the house before my car rolls down the hill and hits two parked cars. With me in it.
So turns out, my car wasn’t in park, but it was stopped as if it was. I’ve never taken physics so I’m not the one to explain how, but it does make more sense considering it was a small hill and the car was positioned going up the hill not down. I was in the passenger seat getting my groceries out when I reached over the center console and turned the car off. And I just… rolled down the hill.
All I remember is having enough sense to pull the gear shift while it was going down. That did nothing. And next thing I know, I’m pinned between three cars. Mine and two others. Now I wasn’t hurt, because I wasn’t smushed between the three cars, it was more… three walls around me type pinned.
I called the police, something I learned to do from the first accident, immediately while trembling. I can’t tell you another time I have been that terrif- actually I can, that was a lie. BUT, oh my gosh. I was a shaky mess, hyperventilating and everything.
After getting the police there, giving my information to the poor car owner’s I hit, and getting my car towed away, I laid in bed for the rest of the day. Too overwhelmed to do a single thing.
Anxiety Again
I’m always so terrified of getting into an accident while driving. I have been for years. The thing is, even if you’re doing what you’re supposed to on the road, all it takes is a mistake from somebody else. And I lived through both of those scenarios within two weeks.
I also had the pain of only getting two hours of sleep going into that Monday due to crippling anxiety. Apparently, the tow truck driver couldn’t find the autobody shop. They never even called back saying it was ok resolved. So not only was my car damaged, I thought the damn thing was lost. Now how was I supposed to explain that to my mama? Unbelievable.
I found her though she’s fine!
The one thing every older adult kept saying to me that weekend: things happen.
That doesn’t translate, it doesn’t compute with my anxiety. I’m over here thinking that my karmic debt is being paid out. I like to keep my life simple, so when things happen to me I assume it’s some metaphysical reckoning. That line of thinking is mentally taxing, 0/10 would not recommend.
But yeah, that’s my life!
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