An open letter to the woman that hit me: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you were so preoccupied on Friday that you weren’t able to concentrate on driving. I’m also sorry that, for whatever reason, you made the choice not to have car insurance. I’m particularly sorry that those two unwise decisions came to a head on Friday evening, and that you’re now going to literally be paying for them for a long time, both legally and financially. It always really stinks when seemingly insignificant decisions come back to haunt you like that. My sympathy doesn’t excuse you though, because, you see, those two decisions didn’t just impact you. The stationary object you ran into wasn’t a tree or a telephone pole or a fence, it was another car, with a real live human being in it. Another person who doesn’t know you, but now is also suffering the consequences of decisions that you made; that is experiencing physical pain because of the decisions you made; that is without her primary means of transportation because of the decisions you made; that is going into the holidays trying to figure out how she can scrimp on postage, presents, and holiday entertainment in order to afford her insurance deductible because of decisions you made. And it’s not just me, there’s an even greater ripple effect. My boss is going to have to deal with missed deadlines and sub-par work due to how loopy the muscle relaxers make me. I’ve had to cancel a vet appointment for my dog (who is 14 and has cancer), Christmas dinner with my family, and volunteer work—because of decisions you made. My roommate had to forgo her Friday evening plans to come get me at the hospital and now has to either drive me places or lend me her car as well as having to pick up the slack on the housework that I’m unable to do because of decisions you made. And I just needed you to know that. Decisions that can seem inconsequential aren’t. Had I left five minutes earlier or five minutes later, maybe you wouldn’t’ve hit me; maybe you would’ve hit someone else. But you hit me, and I needed you to know that the impact is a lot greater than just the damage to our cars. Emily Ann
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 16:20:02 +0000