On October 9th, 2024 my perspective on life changed. School had just got out. It was sunny but there was still a slight chill in the air. I was a junior in high school on my way to the bus stop to head home. As I was passing the baseball field in Glenhaven park I got a text from my Dad.
“Broken hip, femur, ribs, bladder. I’ll have to live at a rehab. They’re preparing for emergency surgery now. Hopefully I can walk by Xmas”
My heart stopped and my feet immediately went idle. What does he mean?! Why in the world would my father tell me he’s in the hospital in such a dry way. I quickly called him in a panic but there was no answer. At this point tears were racing down my cheeks and everyone around me had concern etched onto their face. I ignored it, I was too focused on what was happening to care about how stupid I looked crying in the middle of the day at a park. Hundreds of thoughts were running through my head. I felt like a computer on the verge of crashing.
I called Miyuki, my step-mom, assuming she would be there with my Dad and could tell me what was happening. I was spitting out my words trying my best to make sense. She immediately said that he was fine, there was no need to be all worked up and that he got into an accident on his motorcycle in Flagstaff Arizona while on his way home. Miyuki had to work so she wasn’t able to go to see him. My dad was alone, in a different state, and going through emergency surgery. I said goodbye, now able to take a deep breath.
A few hours later he called me to explain what happened but was still drugged up on pain medicine so getting a coherent sentence out of him was hard. He told me he was looking for a gas station while on his way home from a camping trip with friends. He was only going about 20 miles an hour but being distracted and exhausted led him to crash into a concrete barrier that separated two roads. He dragged himself to the side of the road, and laid there in pain for the worst 45 minutes of his life before a helicopter finally arrived and took him to the hospital. I wanna say I was shocked but sadly my Dad has a history of driving while tired and almost ending his life or mine. I was thankful he survived and was going to be okay but frustrated that he knew how dangerous it was to ride while tired but he still got on the road. He could’ve prevented it.
Now it’s been over a year and he’s still pretty much stuck in bed and will never be able to walk like he used to. I learned from this whole experience, hearing about the accident and thinking I could lose my Dad, to hearing all the positive and negative updates about his recovery, that you can’t control anything. I used to go through life thinking nothing bad would ever happen to me or anyone I love. Now I’ve realized nobody’s that lucky. I could’ve lost my Dad that day and not have been able to recall our last words to each other. I’ve started to really soak in my time with the people I love. I never want to look back on my last moment with someone and feel regret.