I remember the day vividly. It was raining and the air was hot and humid. It was the day of my best friend’s sister’s birthday party. My best friend and I were playing outside all day so I was pretty drained. With my clothing soaked and grass stains on both of my legs, I called my dad to come pick me up and bring me home. Now we only lived down the street and around the corner, but it was raining again when I was ready to leave and I didnt want to walk. When my dad arrived he laughed at the sight of me, but it was understandable why. I had rubbed black frosting off the cake and onto my face, “War stripes” I called them. My face was stained blue along with my lips and mouth. My teeth were even dyed blue. When I went out to the car once my dad arrived, I spotted my older sister Madelyn sitting comfortably in the front passenger seat of our maroon beat-up truck. I unhappily climbed into the back seat behind my sister. It was crammed with car parts covering the other two seats in the back. I was spent from playing all day and I was wet and dirty, ready to go home and hop in a delightful, steamy shower and take a warm snug nap in my soft comforters. My dad asked me, “Do you have your seat belt on?” I replied with a snarky “Yes dad” as I snapped my seatbelt on.

We had started driving down the soaked streets of Auburn when we passed Byrne Dairy. We had a green light. Of course, my dad drove as any average person would have, but I never would have expected what came next. Everything went dark for a brief moment. My ears were ringing and when I looked up I could see Byrne Dairy from the other side of the road, opposite of where we came from. A car had hit us on the passenger side, my side. As the ringing in my ears slowly silenced, the sound was replaced by ringing sirens and bright lights. My head hurt and before I knew it there was a fireman opening my car door. All he would say repeatedly was “Were you wearing your seatbelt?!? Were you wearing your seatbelt?” I shouted “Yes! Yes I was!” as the firemen checked me for blood and injuries, I was lifted up out of my seat and into a stretcher. My sister and I both were. I could see my mother running out from the house because I'm assuming she had heard the crash as we were only down the street from our home. As my sister and I were escorted into the ambulance by EMTs my mom and father decided she would be the one to ride in the ambulance with us to the hospital. I remember her holding my hand the entire time in the dark ambulance and into the hospital. At the hospital, my sister and I were stuck in our stretchers for roughly four or five hours. We had been put through MRIs and were examined thoroughly. I had managed to only get away with bruises and a concussion while my sister had gotten a concussion and shoulder problems for her life due to the seatbelt restriction. However, if we hadn't worn our seat belts we could've ended up with broken bones and cuts, considering the car had almost flipped because we had done a full 360 and hit the curb almost tipping. Our concussions were due to my head hitting her seat and her head hitting the glove box. If it weren't for our seatbelts, it could've been so much worse. It would've been so much worse.