As I See It: A Slumberless Sleepover
November 21, 2016
It’s easy to learn from your own mistakes. But what happens when you see someone else make one? Can you still learn from it?
While I was at a sleepover a few weeks ago with a group of friends, I witnessed someone make a horrible mistake.
The lights were off in the entire house, except in my friends’ room, which was brightly lit with the carefree and spirited environment of any classic teenage girl sleepover.
Since I usually spend my Saturday nights stressing over homework, it was nice being able to enjoy a night off — gossiping and giggling with my friends. At least, I thought it would be.
Out of nowhere, we heard a sharp boom coming from outside. We rushed to the balcony window to see that a car had completely flipped over after hitting a parked car.
I had seen car accidents in movies and on TV, but never in real life. I was completely shaken.
I felt my breaths getting shorter and shallower as my mind swarmed with all of the possible scenarios that — without having any concrete facts — I was forced to imagine in my head. What was it that caused this accident? Was anyone wounded?
Before I got too lost in my thoughts, my friends’ step-dad, Chaim, came in to the room to tell us that the driver was perfectly fine. No scratches. No bruises. No cuts.
She looked about 20 years old and was deemed intoxicated by the policemen. Chaim said that she might have been texting.
At around 1:30am, the policemen handcuffed the woman, and the sleepover continued.
One by one my friends went to bed, but I stayed awake thinking about this crazy ordeal. It is a miracle that the woman survived without a scratch, and I have few doubts that she learned the dangers of texting, drinking and driving, seeing her life literally flashed before her eyes.
What about me? I was just a witness. I didn’t actually experience the accident. It wasn’t my life that was saved; it wasn’t my luck.
But if I can learn from other someone else’s mistakes, that seems like a pretty lucky deal to me.
