August 15th
My accident happened right after my family got back from Florida in August. I was excited to see my boyfriend, so jumped to at the first chance I could— later the day we came back. I was driving down the road right outside my neighborhood when all of a sudden it was like I was waking from a dream and plunging into a nightmare. I don’t know where a few of my seconds went, but in those few seconds, I began to drive off of the road. When I snapped back into reality, I overcorrected, and in an attempt to stop the cat, my sandal got stuck and I somehow ended up on the accelerator instead. My car proceeded to drive off the road completely, hit a freshly planted tree, and flip over into the retention pond on the side opposite of my neighborhood. I was drowning. The windows were rolled up. The sunroof was closed. The pond was dark and I couldn’t see. The pressure of the water made it so I couldn’t open my door. I remember thinking, “I am going to die here. I am going to drown and no one will know where I am and they’ll find me at the bottom of this pond.” I somehow said the words “help me” while trapped in my upside down car that was close to fully submerged underwater. And then I felt mud. My windshield fell off and I swam up, fearing I might pass out from lack of air before I could get myself fully free. But then the sun hit my eyes, and I realized where I was. I half swam, half limped out of the pond while calling for help. Several kind souls stopped to call my parents and an ambulance. I was bloody, I was soaked, I was sobbing, I was terrified. But I was alive.
