So many things going on, it being the weekend of the fourth of July, all of my family members were up at our cottage having fun. There were a Lots of things that made it especially fun like: canoeing, swimming, bonfires, riding quads, etc. Doing all of those things with family is funner than if we were just sitting around doing nothing or even possibly doing these all alone. My cottage is in Irons Michigan, and the people there are laidback and cool, lots of outdoor activities and the best thing is no ones on there electronics.

“Really there's nothing to do.” I had explained.Which wasn't true at all, so many cousins everywhere, siblings, grandparents. Just a blast everywhere you look, except when you get annoyed.

“Oh come on, theres tons of things to do, rake leaves, go fishing, do something.” I remember my grandpa had said.

My cousin who is exactly one year younger than me; We share the same birthday. Who was 12 at the time, was poking at the fire. There was one thought that I remember to this day which was...

“Wow look he's going to burn himself.” He took the poker stick, which is used to move logs in the fire, and he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and grabbed the part that he had just been using to poke the fire.
We were all kind of just sitting there being “lazy,” with the occasional small talk. Which if you are up north being lazy isn't something normal for someone to do, and my grandpa, out of nowhere, sits there and goes.
“so, you want to go drive my car?”

I was kind of shocked, but I said, “Sure, i'll try not to damage your car by crashing          ;).”

“haha, funny, you better not.” he had said…

So me and my cousin got his car keys.

“so who should drive first, why don't you go first” Jayden, my cousin, had said.

I was thinking well maybe we shouldn't just leave Brandon alone, it wouldn't be fair, “well why would you want to take him, he would just annoy you while you are driving.” Jayden had said. “I guess you're right, looks like it's just us and I guess having fun with just you will have to do, haha.”

So I got in the front seat of the car, turned the music up really, loud, and went right, and kept going straight. Which, this is all our private land, so when we got to the end of the straight path, we turned, the only possible way, and then the paths get smaller. We were at the point of the path were you just barely can fit through the path, and even then your tires are still hitting the roots of the trees. My cousin and I not paying attention and just goofing off. We hit the point where there is this huge half circle turn, which it is a sharp turn. Something clicked and all of a sudden I find myself almost hitting this huge tree by the half circle and if something didn’t click in my head to look forward we would have crashed and i was going at least 15 mph.

OMG I can’t believe i just almost crashed  grandpa’s nice car, good thing it was just a scratch. So i guess, I saved the day, and made sure that we didn’t crash. I drove up this hill to get back on to ground level, went in and pulled into the part of  the driveway to be able to park. My grandpa was waiting in the back, by the bonfire. I didn’t lie or anything, I just told him, and to be honest he was really cool about the whole situation.

“So um, yeah Grandpa, you know how we were joking about not crashing your car?” I nervously said.

“Yeah of course, what about it?”

Just thinking about that sentence and the way he said it, I got chills, and to admit it I was scared to hear what he would say after I told him. Some things that were going through my head were, uh oh, i'm going to be in so much trouble,  might even ban me from driving because I couldn’t even keep an eye where I was driving, and they the outcome could have been horrid. I got enough nerve and explained what had happened…

“Okay, we were driving on the path that is smaller than the rest, you know where there’s  huge half circle thing, and then there's that huge tree that is just sitting there,  and I wasn’t paying attention at all, I don't even know what I was thinking to be honest. I almost crashed your car, and if i did than i don't know what you would have thought of me, all i want to say is i'm sorry.”

“This isn’t a joke- are you listening to me?” I madly exclaimed.

“Well you didn’t actually crash it...than it’s okay, and even if you did, I wouldn’t really care because as long as you both were safe, than I wouldn’t care. Now let’s say you hit another car, then that would be a way different story.”
“okay gramps,” I said.

I had learned to always look where I was going when driving and to make sure to check my surroundings, don't listen to music super loud because that can distract you while trying to drive.