Everyone has a certain day or moment that they remember and carry with them for the rest of their life. The day or moment may be very simple, but may leave a huge effect on how a person is or turns out to be. Many people have their lives altered by a divorce, a loss of a loved one, or a horrific experience. A moment of coming close to death is an experience that would change a little ten-year old girl’s perspective of life for the rest of her days to come.


It was a hot day, but not a day to enjoy the sun. My parents had just bought our new house and this day had been filled with packing boxes, filling cars, and moving everything from the old house to the new one. We were thankful for having a lot of help from both my sets of grandparents, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but we were still very busy. I was a ten year old with the attention span of two seconds so of course I had become bored with the nonstop packing, so I explored. I went outside and walked to the end of the driveway. My mother’s white Acura was parked on the street with the trunk open. The inside looked comfortable to sit in, so I climbed on in. –I know, what a strange little kid, why would anyone ever want to just sit in a trunk? Well, I’ve always been the type of person that doesn’t look before I leap and I end up doing and saying the craziest things! – And it was nice just sitting there day dreaming. I watched the birds flying from tree to tree and squirrels playing tag. This is total relaxation, I thought.

After day dreaming for only a few minutes, I suddenly felt the lid of the trunk fall down on me. As it started closing, I tried to push it up with all my might but the lid was too strong and heavy. My first thought was that my little sister, Kailey, was trying to mess with me by closing it. I yelled, “Kailey! I’m in here! Stop!” but there was no response. It only took three seconds for the trunk to completely close with me locked inside. Darkness covered me so my sense of sight was gone and the only sound I could possibly hear was anything around the car. Thoughts of children like me on the news being locked in the trunks of cars and dying from starvation, lack of oxygen, and heatstroke started flashing through my brain. A second after the trunk closed, my mind went into panic mode. I screamed and yelled and shouted as loud as I could. I yelled “Help me!” “I’m in here!” “Please!” “Mama! Daddy! Someone!” I banged on the ceiling as hard as I could. I prayed to God that someone would find me. I started to cry.

Two minutes had passed of me screaming for help when finally my grandmother walked over to the car. “Hannah! Are you in there?” she called. “Yes! Help me please! I don’t want to die!” I yelled back. “Oh my gosh! I’ll get your mom!” I was still panicking while I waited. “Hannah! What the heck are you doing in there?” I heard my mom say. “Just get me out Mama! I’m so scared!” My mom searched for her keys. “Hold on I have to go get the keys,” my mom said calmly. “Oh lord!” I heard my Grandmother say. I could tell she was beginning to panic too. That sent me over the edge and I started gasping for air. I felt like there was no more oxygen left in the car and I was suffocating. Just when I thought I would only have a couple of minutes left on this earth, the lid opened and I could see my grandmother standing there with open arms for me. I reached out for her to hold me and as I was held I was sobbing. “I thought I was gonna die! I couldn’t breathe! I thought I was suffocating!” I said in tears. My mother looked at me in concern. “You had a panic attack. In a situation like that, you need to stay calm or something worse could have happened.” I was still wondering how the trunk actually closed. “Where’s Kailey? She’s the one that locked me in here!” I told my mom. “Kailey has been inside watching a movie this passed hour,” my mom said. “Then, who closed the trunk?” I asked. “It had to have been the wind,” she answered, “it’s been pretty windy today.”

I was traumatized the rest of that day and told every person I ran into the story. It had been one of those moments that everyone has in their life where you really believe that your life is over, when you think “I’m going to die right now”. Fortunately, God didn’t intend on that moment to be my last. Maybe He wanted that moment to be a life lesson that I would carry with me for the rest of my life. Perhaps He made it a lesson to teach me to start thinking before I make an immature decision. Although I haven’t completely learned from it yet, that situation taught me not to panic no matter what is happening to you. You have to stay calm and think about the problem. It also taught me that you never know what can happen today or tomorrow or which breath could be your last. Something as simple as the wind and a small mistake can take something so precious within a few seconds.