Imagine driving down the road, heading to go get gas at the closest gas station. As you put your foot on the gas in an attempt to speed up, you realize that this doesn’t work. You realize you are completely and utterly out of gas, and you have to make the decision to either stop in the middle of an intersection or make a risky left turn onto a less busy access road, because you know your car is about to meet its death.

Last week, I made the decision to take the risky turn onto the access road.

I live in Canyon, therefore I use a lot of gas traveling to and from school on a daily basis. On Thursday, my gas light turned on around lunchtime, and I knew I needed to get to a gas station as soon as I could. However, being the person that I am, I procrastinated and knew I could get to where I needed to be with the amount of gas I had left. As a team, we went and watched the junior varsity tennis team take on Amarillo High on Thursday, and I made it to Amarillo High just fine. However, on my way back to Randall, just as I went under I-27 on Bell Street, my car decided it absolutely, positively, could not make it to the Pak-a-Sak right across the street from Randall and died, violently taking a curb out in the process. I was stuck with no help on the side of the road.

I was with my best friend, Lauren Bentley, and my other friend Drew Norman at the time. Lauren called her friend who said he could help us, however he ended up not being able to help us because of some other complications. Just as I was about to call my parents and tell the embarrassing truth that I was completely and utterly out of gas, forcing them to drive to Amarillo all the way from Canyon, a car pulled over and a familiar face got out of the drivers seat. Brad Scott, a friend from my English class, saved the day. He had recognized Lauren and I from English and decided he needed to pull over to help us out.

Brad drove all the way to his house to get a gas can, and then traveled to two different gas stations to buy gas for my car. I had been stuck on the access road for roughly 45 minutes when Brad came to save the day. I could not be more thankful for him bringing me gas and sparing me having to tell my parents the embarrassing events of the night.

I definitely learned from this embarrassing experience, and I am blessed that everything that went wrong went as smoothly as possible, and my friends and I are all safe. I now know never to assume that I can make it wherever I want, whenever I want, and my car is not indestructible.