About a year ago now my family took a trip to Cancun, Mexico at the end of February. When we went we had an amazing time there, we got to stay in a beautiful resort on the beach. It was warm compared to the cold New England air. Animals everywhere,  beautiful 90 degree weather with all the food you could ever want. Though on our way back from Mexico the real story starts. 

In Mexico my father forgot to put sunscreen on his feet and they weren’t under the umbrella, so he had second degree burns on his feet just in mexico. The flight home had beautiful sun sets and everything was smooth sailing. My uncle (Dads brother) was going to pick us up from Logan Airport in Boston. We walked out into the cold 30 degree New England air with chivers running down our spine. But once we got into the car my uncle didn’t really know how to leave the airport so we just picked a way because we knew somehow we would get home. We got out of the main arriving area and we get to our first light. We are sitting there first at light with traffic to the left and ahead of us. As we sat I looked over to my left and saw headlights then BOOM!

 Life comes to a stop, time jumps as the eerie cold of the outside air creeps into the car. One second my family was having a conversation, the next was grunts as we heard cars driving through the intersection and a car beeping in the background. My senses rose like life became life or death. My father asks if anyone is ok as I look to my left and see my mother coming back to reality as she realizes that her foot is stuck. When the car hit us from the side it pushed the metal making her foot stuck in between the car and her seat. I look up to see a police car driving through the intersection stopping and running to the car that hit us. I hear my dad screaming as I try to see if I'm hurt. Then I see my Uncle looking lifeless as the door is pushed into his body as his seat is thrown backwards into my mother. My dad frantically tried to get the cop to help his brother. But there's nothing he can do. A police officer tells me to climb out my window since the car was pushed over a curb into a half wall. I stared at the scene as I begged the police to help my mom. Once they cut her and my Uncle out of the car and into the ambulance I demanded to see my mom and drive with her to the hospital. Once I get there we spend all night as my Uncle is in and out of surgery not knowing if he's going to make it. My mom is stuck laying flat on her back with a neck brace on for hours. At 5:30 AM my grandfather came to get me from the hospital along with my father. I get home at 6 AM and get 30 minutes of sleep to wake up and take Mcas the next morning. 

This time in my life was one of my darkest as I couldn’t do anything. Life was out of my power. All I could do was stand by and watch as I tried to move on with life even though my family couldn’t. These two days really showed me who I was and it was kind of a learning experience because I taught myself that even in the darkest of times you can preserve. After all was said and done my mom had broken almost all the bones in her face and had a concussion but made a full recovery. My father broke 5 of his ribs and I came out uninjured. For my uncle I don’t know all of the damage but had to have both of his pelvis and femurs rebuilt basically along with all of his ribs were broken with internal bleeding. He did make a full recovery and has started walking aging. This story really does define me because I learned so many valuable lessons like love the people that mean a lot to you because in a blink of an instant they can be gone.