Three Trial Memiors

#1

The Power of the Z


Ever since I was twelve years old I’ve been fascinated with cars. I’ve particularly been interested in foreign sports cars. At the age of fourteen, I was first introduced to the Nissan 350z. An older friend of mine bought one and took me for a bit of a joy ride one night. It had been raining; the roads were now layered inch upon inch. So of course it was time to show off. We got ready to pull onto the highway and he floored it, getting sideways entering traffic. The layer of water was not happy with his actions and he soon lost control and spun in the opposite direction facing oncoming traffic. Luckily we spun onto the shoulder. Since that incident, I have been hooked on getting a Z.
At the age of fifteen, another friend of mine got a 350z. Oddly enough, it was completely identical to that of my previous friend’s. The color was Pikes Pearl White, cream leather interior and a six-speed manual that shifted you from 0-60 in 5 seconds. Since I now had my learner’s permit, my dreams of getting to drive this unreachable machine finally became true. I remember getting in and backing it down the driveway for the first time. I had a smile on my face that stretched from ear to ear. I drove it pretty easy to get use to it first, especially since I had only been driving for a month and already had a speeding ticket. But that’s a whole different story. After getting warmed up, I took it around some back roads where I let the Japanese engineering do what it does best; perform in tight curves. I was taking fifty and sixty degree turns well over the designated speed limit. As I left one right hand turn I saw my opening to about a half mile long straight away. So of course I took advantage. As quickly as I slammed the pedal to the floor my head slammed back in the seat. I reached my peak of 110 m.p.h. as I ran out of road and had to break for the next turn. I, again, had a grin from ear to ear. As the day came to an end, I sadly had to give this astonishing dream of mine up.
As my want and desire for this car strengthened even more after getting a taste of what it can do, it decreased my parent’s willingness to buy me one. After months of arguing, my dad finally reached an agreement with me. He told me if I got into college on a full ride that he would buy me one. Well unfortunately I didn’t get in on a full ride. I was only about eight hundred dollars short. So my dream, want, desire and lust for this seemingly unreachable goal still lives on. Luckily, however, my perseverance is stronger than my want. One day my dream will come true.


#2



Village Life


Going into this trip, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was going into a third world country six thousand miles away from the U.S. with a group of people whom I had never met a month prior to our departure. We were expected to spend a week in a village and help kids ranging in age 5-17. I was excited to go yet insanely nervous at the same time. I had no idea what to expect to happen on this trip. After an eleven hour demanding flight we arrived in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
I was excited to be there and finally be off the plane. The only down side was with the time change; we got there just in time to start the day all over again. We met our Ukrainian leaders and translators at the airport and rode in an old VW van with no air-conditioner to our village that was six hours away. With the miserable conditions on the van, the ride seemed even longer than the flight. We arrived in our village and it was even worse than I had expected. Few people had cars to venture outside the village and most just rode their bikes or walked. Therefore, most of the people within never saw life outside of their village so to have Americans visit them would be like having a celebrity coming to our town. We started that afternoon by introducing ourselves to the 300+ children involved in the camp. I’ve spoken in front of large crowds before but never with someone translating every word I said. It was difficult adjusting to needing someone to speak for you in every conversation. The week progressed and my hours of sleep stayed the same. With the time change it was difficult sleeping at night and so the first 96 hours there I didn’t have more than 2 hours collectively spent sleeping. However, I wouldn’t have changed that because it was just more time spent getting to interact with the children and elders of the village. Two other people from my group and I stayed the week in an elder ladies house with one of our translators and we all soon grew fond of her. She opened her home to us and treated us as if we were her own kids. We even started to call her Maa-Maa.
Midway through the week it started to hit me that my time there was almost over. I had grown close to everyone there already and it had only been three days. We split the 300 kids into smaller groups consisting of about 40 kids. Being “celebrities” in the community made all of the kids very receptive of our help which caused all of us to grow even more attached to them. By the end of the week, all my expectations of the trip which I had previously had were nothing of that which actually happened. None of us wanted to leave our new “family.”
Ukrainians are some of the friendliest and most generous people I’ve ever come across. This experience has shown me that there is so much more out there in the world than the United States has to offer. Yes, the way of life is better than any other country but I see no good in that if you can’t help other people to improve their way of life. When I look at the pictures of the trip, I remember seeing these people as if they were just normal people. Now I keep these photos on my bookcase where, every time I see them, I think of how much they opened their arms to me. I intending on going back to my “family” for an extended period of time to reunite and continue to better help their lives.



#3



Flip of a Lifetime


Senior year was coming to an end and the morning was just like any other. I drug myself out of bed and got ready to go to school just hoping for that last day. I left the house around 7:45, pushing it to make it on time as usual. As I was getting ready to pull out of the subdivision onto the highway, I noticed my friend Katelyn was running late as well. I pulled out behind her and she gained some distance from me as she was obviously going faster than I. As a slight curve arose in the road, she wasn’t paying attention and crossed the center line plowing into a minivan head on. I was in disbelief at what was happening right in front of me. A semi carrying crushed cars was following behind the minivan and locked up the brakes and swerved crossing into my lane attempting to avoid the wreck. Reality then set in.
The semi flipped onto its side sliding towards me at speeds of sixty miles an hour which matched that of my own. I slammed on my breaks, threw the vehicle in reverse and floored it, backing up as the semi slid towards me. As it finally came to a stop I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I thought for sure that Katelyn was gone. I jumped out of the car and called 911 as the driver of the semi crawled out onto the embankment of which it had rested upon. I yelled and asked if he was okay; he nodded yes and laid back in shock. I then ran to the lady in the minivan. Her vehicle completely smashed as she cried out for help. I tried to calm her but she was in total shock.
I then proceeded to Katelyn’s car where I knew I didn’t want to go. Her window was shattered out and I could hear her crying out for help. She also was in total shock when she saw me there. She had blood running from her head and about that time the ambulance and the life-flight helicopter arrived. She was still alive and that I was thankful for. I spent another hour and a half talking to the cops and filling out reports on what happened. The man in the semi walked away shaken up, the lady in the minivan had a broken leg and Katelyn suffered from a cracked vertebra, broken hip, leg and ankle. It wasn’t until 3 months later that she was able to walk on her own and finally get back to normal life.
Situations such as this always throw one of guard but strengthen at the same time. I’m more aware of my surroundings now and am extremely thankful that I wasn’t hit by the turned over semi along with the crushed cars that spilled out from the top. I was also glad to know everyone involved was okay, especially my friend Katelyn. Though she suffered extreme pain and had to learn to walk again, she was fortunate to make it through that morning.