The shock of a tragic event can mean many different things. To me, one of the most tragic things that can happen to anyone is death. A family member, friend, even a teammate. A teammate is like family, you go through so much together, from bad to good. You go through the same pain but push through that pain to get even better than you were before.

A cold, sunny day in December of 2015, a tragic event happened to the entire school, and my team. One of our teammates, someone everyone loved so much, made her way to heaven. Shock was painted on everyone’s face.
I remember every detail as if it happened yesterday, but it still feels blurry, like just waking up from a bad nightmare when you’re trying to remember everything the right way and you feel like your mind is twisting the details, when deep down, you know that’s how it really goes.

Arriving to practice that day, I was excited to start working on our new material, not knowing what happened after school. When I got there, everyone was different, quiet and with depressed faces. There was something in the air that told me not to say anything, something large and obvious sitting on everyone’s shoulders. The confusion was clear on my face, along with a few others that hadn’t heard the news yet but no had the strength to talk about it.

“Why were they like this?” I remember asking myself.  “They’re never like this.”

When our coach had us sit down, she had that look on her face too, and at that moment, I knew she was about to tell us news we didn’t want to hear. She continued to explain that there’s been a horrible car crash and the rumor is that one of our teammates was involved in it. At that moment, it hit me like a bus. I could feel that look everyone had on their faces crawl onto mine, I felt that weight fall onto my chest and shoulders, and suddenly my head was spinning. Even though no names were said, everyone knew who it was. There were only a couple people missing from practice, the one involved, and the one who called. Some people broke down into tears and couldn’t stop themselves, others didn’t know how to take this and froze. It was so much to take in, something you never want hear, something you pray and pray it’s all a bad nightmare but seeing everyone so hurt by this event, you are reminded that this is really happening. She was one of those girls that everyone knew and loved, and if they didn’t, they didn’t actually know her. Such a tragic event like this one, brought everyone in the school closer together as a family, we were all affected. It brought my team closer together, and pushed us to work harder to get what we want, not for us, but for her, knowing that’s what she would want.

The day after the death of our teammate, and everyone’s friend, everyone came to school. Everything was darker, and quieter than usual. No one had the strength to talk about this tragedy that has taken over everyone. Eyes were swollen and pink, showing signs of crying. We were all swallowed in the guilt and grief that has left us wondering, why us? Why her? 

Some sat alone and took it in the best they could, others helped each other and cried on each other’s shoulder. It wasn’t only the students and her friends that were felt by this, it was teachers too. Everyone had that face on them. The face that carried the grief and guilt with them. It was clear that the weight was stuck on everyone’s shoulders too, but no one bothered to try to shake it off. It was too hard. Everyone was shaken up and in a haze like we were all stuck in this bad nightmare and no one is waking up from it.

This hurt everyone and opened everyone’s eyes, because you never know when a tragic event like this will happen, when you or a loved one’s life will be over. This event caused so many people to do good things, even to this day. Her parents and her friends. Her parents have put together an event for everyone that’s going to be annual, to raise funds from the funeral and donations for the school. And her friends started doing awareness for reckless driving. Some people did good for themselves because they realized that life could be over at any moment, so they knew to do what would make them happy while they have the chance to do it.

The shock of a tragic event like this can cause people to go into a state of grief and isolate themselves from the world.This situation has made me realize that you never know when you or someone else’s last day is, so you should always be the best person you can

Although no one wanted to admit it, this was really happening and it opened up people’s eyes that reckless driving is dangerous. The consequences of your choices like reckless driving doesn’t affect only one person, it affects everyone around you.