Crashing and Laughing

Sometimes the only way to deal with a bad situation is to find a way to laugh about it. Laughing releases mood-boosting endorphins and lowers the amount of stress-related hormones. This is because when you use your face muscles to smile, it sends a signal to the brain to release those chemicals. Even when it may seem as though it is impossible to laugh, it is almost a guaranteed way to lift your spirits. Anytime that I’m having a bad day or something goes wrong, I simply take a moment to look in a mirror and smile. It doesn’t always work right away, but once I find a way to make myself laugh, I feel so much better.

Saturday June 8th, 2017 started out like any other day. At the time, I was working as a cook at Camp Hinds, a boy scout camp. I would show up Sunday mornings, stay in my cabin as I worked throughout the week, and usually go home Friday nights. One Friday night, I decided to stay late at camp and hang out with some friends and just leave the next morning. I woke up June 8th and packed my stuff to head home for the day. The weather was perfect – bright, sunny, and about 70 degrees out. I got into my car and started off on my way home. As I was driving, I started to notice how nice the weather was and decided that it was a perfect day to grab my clubs and go play a couple rounds of golf. I turned onto Quarry Road, a long and twisty stretch of dirt road (imagine Route 197, but dirt). Towards the end of the road, there is a big right turn. I took the turn around 40 mph, which I didn’t think would be an issue because I would usually go down that road at 45-50 mph. When I entered the turn, I felt my rear tires start drifting to the outside of the curve. I turned my steering wheel to the left, but over-corrected and started to spin the other way. My car did a complete 180 and the passenger side door snagged a stump, flipping itself upside down. I remember how scared I was and the feeling of pure terror as I watched myself roll off the road and into the trees, knowing that there was nothing that I could do to save myself. Luckily, I was wearing my seatbelt and there were a few trees that helped break my fall. I walked away from the incident completely unscathed, but my car was totaled. The car still would have run just fine, but there was more cosmetic damage than the car was worth. It would have cost me more money to repair the body than it did to simply buy another car. After the incident, I called my parents to tell them what happened and make sure they knew I was alright, and then I called 911 and they sent police, firefighters, and an ambulance to the crash site. While I was waiting for the emergency vehicles, Collin Walker and his mom happened to drive by on their way to pick up John. They pulled over and made sure I was okay, and Collin stayed with me while his mom went to get John. Police and Paramedics showed up soon after and they called a wrecker who came and managed to roll my vehicle back onto its wheels and pulled it out of the woods. Collin’s mom was generous enough to help me get some items from my car and she gave me a ride home. On the way home, I kept my spirits up by using humor. As terrifying (and costly) as that experience was, I constantly found ways to make myself laugh so the situation didn’t seem so bad. When I got home, Devin talked to me and made sure I was okay and then arranged to borrow his dad’s truck for a week so I could use his Jeep. It made me laugh that Devin was entrusting his personal vehicle to someone who crashed their car less than 2 hours prior, but I was extremely grateful. We continued to laugh about what happened and I came to realize that everything would turn out okay. This goes to show that sometimes a little laughter can make a bad situation seem like a minor inconvenience. While it did take me a couple of weeks to get back on my feet financially, I was physically and emotionally stable within an hour or two after the crash thanks to my ability to laugh during difficult situations.