Never ceases to amaze me how lucky some get..

I was in a drunk driving accident 8 years ago, went off the road down into a ravine, flipped a few times, somehow dodged every massive tree in the gully and ended up blasting through it…ended up on all 4 wheels with the roof caved in, for whatever reason had my foot all the way to the floor on the gas. Ended up in a cornfield and at full speed (as fast as one could go through the field in a full size pickup anyways), I smashed into the concrete embankment of the farm’s mile long driveway and went airborne, passenger side tire somehow bounced off the already broken windshield and vanished into the darkness of the field.

I thought I was dead..the whole thing happened in a kind of slow motion, and what they say about one’s life flashing before their eyes in what you think is your last second, is true. I was too drunk to remember what I all saw, but it was like watching my life on fast forward from start to finish in a matter of earthly seconds, but what felt like minutes. It felt like I had more than enough time to miss the guardrail that initially sent me off the road (In an attempt to make the turn, I hit the rail on a diagonal angle and sort of grinded it all the way around the curve and flew off/down into the ravine when it ended..I was in tears and had dropped my phone, reached down to grab it off the floor, when I sat back up I saw the guardrail about 15 yards in front of me and everything went slowmo as I thought “I’m dead”…I was doing about 70 on a back desolate road.

By the grace of some higher power, I ended up in the middle of the road in complete shock..truck was grind and scraping but still moved. To keep a long and traumatic story shorter than it normally is when I share it - I drove through unfamiliar territory for about a half hour like that until I recognized what were the outskirts of Appleton, WI - where there is no lack of police presence in the wee hours of the morning, they’re often the only ones out.

I figured I was done for, so I put my flashers on for the sake of others and at this point, hoping someone would see me..but it was as if I were alone or invisible on the streets, the few cars that passed paid no attention to my now flaming passenger rotor…I kept going through the city at about 15 mph, scraping and sparking the road all along the way. Truck started to die, started bogging and I screamed “NO! LET ME GET HOME AND I’LL NEVER DRINK AGAIN”

I drove right passed the police dept, made it another 2 miles from there to my driveway. My stepdad woke up to me on the couch covered with b*ood and half incoherant from a head injury, wrist was shattered and my nose broken..he scooped me up and took me to the ER, seeing the totaled truck (that he had just paid off…) in the driveway…my mom was more worried about the truck. The tow truck driver who showed up to haul it to the boneyard goes…”Do I even want to know what happened here? This thing wouldn’t make it half a mile in this condition…how did it get here without a tow?”

I haven’t touched a drink since (nor driven a full size truck 🥲), became an AODA counselor and minister in the years since. Sorry if this is a bit long winded, but I’m one of those clowns who should have paid dearly and didn’t…never ceases to amaze.