In class assignment, When suddenly a drunk driver almost hit our car into a train By Kyle Gardner

One of the fondest memories of my youth was when my family and I were traveling home from seeing my terminally ill grandfather in the hospital. My grandfather had stage 4 prostate cancer that had metastasized throughout his body, into his bone marrow, and effectively eliminated his immune system. My family and I were traveling to the hospital every night to see him because we didn’t know when the last time we would see him was. One particular night, we were making our way back to our old residence but were halted by a train crossing. While waiting for the train to pass, I looked out the back window and saw headlights approaching at an alarming rate.  Luckily, the drunk driver swerved at the last moment and smashed into a light post just before the train. If the driver had hit us, my whole family would have been gone.

As a child, I feared the loss of control of my own fate as dictated by the means of something/someone else. I feel as though I felt this fear because of the combination of the incident of the train along with the helplessness of my grandfather. In both situations, I was helpless. I could not stop the drunk driver and I couldn't stop the cancer from taking my grandfather. To this day, I still have this fear of helplessness and strive to take action of my own life and live the way I want to, not by other terms.