A Change of Plans
Joey Hildreth Dr. Weston Composition 1 September 12, 2012 A Change of Plans Making a plan to do something is a normal occurrence in human life. People make plans to go see a movie, to go out to dinner, and to hang out with their friends all on a regular basis. Sometimes life can send unexpected events that can change those plans. I am sure this has happened to everyone at least once where things didn’t go exactly the way they had planned. To this day I would consider myself a good driver; however, I recall a driving experience where things did not go quite the way I had planned.
I had made plans to go to Cedar Point with a friend, and we were going to meet up with someone we had met the last time we were at Cedar Point. My friend and I had both bought season passes in early June. It was the first summer that I had a car and we figured we could drive to Cedar Point once a month until it closed for the year. We had gone once with my friend’s family in late June, and another time with my parents in late July. In early August we decided that we needed to make another trip up before school started and we would have a schedule to work around.
Since there had been no more family trips planned, we were determined to make the drive by ourselves. I must have begged my mom to let me drive without parental supervision at least a thousand times. Only after I had promised her I would be careful, responsible, and follow the speed limit that she even considered it. After that it took many more pleads before she finally gave in. I still remember our conversation when she finally told me we would be allowed to make the trip. “Fine, but if you want to go you need to have Taylor text me every half hour so I know that you guys are still alright, and you have to call me as soon as you get there.
While you’re at Cedar Point, you’ll text me every 2 hours to check in,” she said. “Alright Mom,” I replied as I hid excitement piling up inside me. “I’m not finished yet,” she said and paused for me to pay attention “and you will leave no later than nine O’clock. If you don’t call or text, you better believe after you get home you won’t have a car either. ” Saturday morning I left my house and headed over to Taylor’s to pick him up. It was no surprise to me that I had to wait for him to finish getting ready when I arrived.
After the usual groans of “Come on” and “You’re a guy, you don’t need make-up, let’s go” we were finally ready to leave. We loaded our things into the car and got ready to take off. I popped in a CD I had burned that consisted of songs I knew well. I pulled out the driveway and drove off down the road; both windows down and the stereo blaring. We were nearing the halfway point when life decided to throw in an unexpected event. I was driving down a country road going 55 when I saw a groundhog crossing the street. He was near the middle of the road when I saw him and I didn’t know what to do.
This was no ordinary groundhog, this groundhog was the sizeHe started to run towards the left side of the road, and then he turned around and darted back to my side. I slammed the brakes and swerved to the right. Just before my tires hit the gravel on the side of the road, I felt a slight a bump and heard a deep thud. As I realized I was going to go off-road I quickly turned the wheel to the left to try to correct myself. When I did this, my car fishtailed and threw itself into the ditch. “Oh my god! Are you alright Tay? ” I asked. “Uh, yeah,” he responded with wide eyes.
We both got out of the car to see what the damage was. At first everything seemed fine other than a small crack in my front bumper; until Tay pointed out that I had a flat tire. I called my mom to tell her what happened, and she was not a happy camper. I did not have a spare tire so she told me that she would call the American Automobile Association (AAA). Shortly after she called me back and said a tow truck was on the way. Once he arrived he loaded the car onto the tow truck, and I had quite the story to tell him about how life had thrown a change of plans to me.
