You just never realize it.

I got a haircut today!

One day, at the young age of nine, I almost died.

You see, there is a fairly large road next to the mall that reaches down to where Wegmans now is. There is a small strip of about 5 stores on one side, with a Donato's (now Taco Bell) next to it, in between the mall and Wegmans. Me and my mom were driving down that road. I was playing Nintendogs. I look up.

Another car has come out of the Donato's parking lot, the car of a brown/curly haired young woman. Maybe we were going to fast, or maybe she wasn't looking, but the second I looked away from the DS, her car made contact with ours.

In an instant our little Hyundai was pushed halfway across the road. It all happened too quickly to process any details, but the next second later, my mom was frantically trying to drive the injured car to the opposite side of the road. At the time, I didn't know what was happening. I didn't see any damage in either car and I had just barely realized we were hit.

Miraculously, the car managed to haul itself to the side of the road, where we waited for the police to come. During that time, after turning off my DS, I tried to open the passenger-side door. It opened slightly that stopped, so I had to crawl out my mom's side.

It may seem like just a harmless accident, with no one hurt and nothing really damaged but the door (I never got a good glance at the other car...), but it was more of a miracle than originally thought. You see, the young woman's car hit the firewall almost exactly, at just the right angle, which saved our lives. Six inches to the right, she would've hit the hood and we'd have gone spiraling out of control. Six inches to the left, I would've been crushed and killed almost instantly.

The miracle doesn't stop there. The car was indeed damaged. Besides the door being stuck, it didn't seem to want to move anywhere, particularly not out of the way of the semi-truck that was barreling straight toward us. Somehow, some way, the car got out of the way before dying. I (and my mom) was saved not once, but twice that day.

I was old enough to remember this accident, but hearing it again made it fresh in my memory. Life is so precious, so fragile, held together by the thinnest of threads. If you don't treasure every moment, that thread gets even weaker.

I don't believe in coincidence. Somewhere, someone was looking out for me and my mom. An angel up in heaven saved our lives that day, and for that, I am eternally grateful.