Don't Let It Bring You Down

Today I got into a car accident. I was driving from one work event at a college, to another work event at a university. Half way there, I was singing Neil Young at the top of my lungs, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather, when stopped at a stop light someone rammed into the back of my car, causing a big crash and my body to be flung forward then back. The impact was such that the plastic hair clip that was holding my hair back, smashed when my head hit the headrest. But I was ok. The car was not. I am proud to say that I was quite cool and collected in the moments that followed. I put on my four-ways, got out of the car and checked out the damage. The man kept apologizing and saying that he can just give me money. He was an older man, with a strong accent. He looked so stressed. But unfortunately, I told him, my car was a rental, so I had to go through the regular steps. I called the police (they told me they were too busy unless there was an injury or leaking fluids), then I called the rental place, who told me to go to a "Collision Report Centre". Some tow-truck guys happened to be on the scene and told me where I needed to go and what I needed to do. I gave the sad old man my cell phone so that he could call his wife so that she could go to pick up their daughter. He was on his way to pick up his daughter at the university I was also on my way towards. This made me even more sad somehow. We went to the collision report place together and filed our report. It was clearly his fault. I had a cop named "Jimmy" help me out. He was nice.

I left and felt like apologizing, even though it was his fault. I just understand his pain. I made some stupid mistakes driving when I was 16. It just costs so much money, these mistakes. And cause so much stress. And he seemed like a nice old man. But I guess if he hadn't of rear-ended my car, he could have run over a dog or a kid or something, you know? Careless driving is careless driving. So why do I feel so guilty?