Hey Mac Families!
It's odd when things in life come full circle.
Three days into the school year, my car was hit in the school parking lot by a student who had had his license for exactly one week. As teens do (they have to prep for the lunch getaway, after all), he was backing into a parking spot.
He must not have heard me laying on the horn to warn him that I was there.
He apparently didn't look behind him very well before he put his car in reverse.
And he certainly wasn't aware of the unspoken rule about not backing up smack dab in the route of the drop off line.
But do you know what he did do? He owned up to his mistake and was polite, which made it easy for me to be kind despite my annoyance that my car had been hit.
You see, a few years ago, my daughter got startled while driving in a neighborhood on a very early, very cold, and very icy morning by a very large truck coming around a curve very fast. As a new driver, her first instinct was to hit her brake hard. Unfortunately, that sent her sliding across the road into the very back corner of the truck. The truck had a minor scratch, but her old Subaru Outback took a hit to the front panel on the driver's side. She was going only about 10-15 miles per hour, and doing everything right for winter driving... until she got startled. She was upset, and scared, and she was YOUNG. And the lady driving that truck got out and immediately screamed at my daughter, shouting that "this was going to be a very expensive mistake for her parents."
Neither one of us will ever forget that moment.
Thankfully, my daughter's teammate, who was a senior at the time, came upon the scene and pulled over to help my daughter deal with this woman, and I was able to talk the woman off of the ledge on the phone after getting the call that no one wants... "Mom, I got into an accident" at 7am.
I made a promise to myself that morning that, if I ever had an accident with a teen driver, I would be kind.
I remembered that as I got out of my car, and stood in front of a scared 16 year old, whose mom was "going to be furious."
And I was kind.
No one ever WANTS to get into an accident. They are not actively trying to cause one.
Are accidents inconvenient? Yes.
Can accidents be expensive? Yup.
Can accidents be catastrophic? Unfortunately, yes.
But these were minor fender benders. No one was hurt. Cars can be fixed. That's why we all have insurance (or should). And honestly, what good is it going to do to scream at a teenager who already feels awful that they screwed up?
My hope is that, when he's an old person like me, the teen who hit me will think of the day that he hit that lady in the parking lot at school, and he will remember that the lady was kind.
Funny Follow Ups
- I made it nine years and three days without getting hit in the HS school parking lot. Tbh, I was pretty shocked that it took that long with the drop off line literally winding around the parking lot filled with new drivers. I'm thankful that it wasn't worse, and hopeful that this was my one and only turn to take the hit.
- I ran into the teen who hit my car randomly last week at his job. He asked me if I worked at the high school across the counter. As I was saying, "no, but I have had three kids there," we realized how we knew each other and had a good cackle about the whole situation.
- I had literally just rolled out of bed to drop my son off on the day that the teen hit my car. So, I figure that I must either look pretty good with a messy ponytail and no make up, or really bad all done up for the day, for him to recognize me out in the real world. (Let's hope it's the former!)
- Good news, his mom was pretty furious, but he's back behind the wheel and his back bumper only had a few paint marks on it that he was able to wash off. And he doesn't park on the drop off route anymore. I call that a win.
Peace ☮️, Love ❤️, & Macaroni 🌼,
Christen
