"How was your Summer?" by Calvin B

 

Jun 1, 2023,

Teenagers bear two big problems: peer pressure and their brains. Ultimately, these two issues either turn teenagers into rolling stones or mature adults. Entering the final free summer before we graduate, let's make it big! Summer will be filled with parties, hangouts, and more parties; that's what I thought.

 

*Ding Ding*, My phone was buzzed by two people wondering if we should do something before we watch “Spiderman Into the Spider-verse.” My response was, “Let's go to an escape room.” I am always a last-minute plot person, but they all didn’t mind and could go. That sounds like a plan. I could pick them up at around 6 in the evening.

 

Current time (2:30 pm): During this time, I was doing an oil change on my car and checking the balance of my tires. My car had a negative camber, where the wheels flared out like the sides of a triangle, so the tire usage also needed to be checked. I thought of this car as a prized possession because I instantly fell in love with how it turned out after adding only a few modifications.

 

It was 5:00 pm when I finished working on my car. The sun began to fall, which was when I headed back home to get dressed for today's eventful night. After getting all prepared, I headed out. One by one, picking them up, we invited one more person, which I didn’t mind since they were around the area.

 

We arrived at Victora Gardens at 6:23 pm, and we were able to make it to our reservation for the escape room. The environment is themed with an immersive atmosphere, like an elementary school, which is when we completed the time very close to the timer and received a sticker as a sign of our accomplishment. After all this hard work, we decided to head to raising canes for dinner.

 

On the way there, we decided that the night should end with something fun. My friend says, “There is a famous view that apparently everyone goes to, and that we should go.” Being able to go through with every plan, I happily agreed as we continued to eat. After leaving, I thought about doing something only seen in the movies that would surely end the night wild.

 

The day I just switched to June 2nd at midnight. The layout of the viewpoint is where you enter one way and leave out another way if you keep following the path. There are a bunch of twists and turns that I did get comfortable with each time I went there. I decided to tell my friends that I would have a stupid teenage idea of trying to get a new time going down the mountain, but my friends trusted me enough to want to be in the car and record. With each turn, I could hear my tires slowly losing grip. The night was foggy, and the roads were slippery. There were a lot of cautions I should’ve taken before starting this idea in my head that I would later regret. The windows were down, the music was blasting, and I had no other thought but just driving. With the last turn before we headed home, I turned the left corner too fast and felt my car slowly lose grip, and finally, I could not correct myself. The vehicle was heading into the left side, so in my instincts, I yanked the wheel right, steering the car towards the edge, and finally turned my wheel back again left. I heard the sounds of scrappage coming from the bottom of my car after it hit the dirt, and eventually, on top of rocks, my car was totaled.

 

Everything in this instance felt blank. I couldn’t believe it. After realizing that it was over, tears ran down my face. Everyone was good. No one was hurt, at least. There was a moment when we all did not know what to do in this situation. We crashed on decoration rocks in front of a gated mansion. The family in the house came out concerned, worried that we were hurt, and gave us water. My mind was spinning, and my heart felt shattered. I decided to make the decision and call my mom for help. My mom and uncle came through and were concerned for me. All my friends needed to go home, so one of their siblings picked them up and headed home, sending regards to me in the process. We called the tow truck while I got a lecture about safety and how the future would go.

 

4:12 am, The tow truck company finally arrived and was having a sales presentation, almost to savor any energy I had left in my body. I wanted to go home. I tried to wake up from this nightmare. When we got home, I tried to go to sleep; all I could hear in my head was screeching and a loud crack. There were no tears left to be shed then. I finally slept.

 

When I woke up, I realized it wasn't a dream as I raced outside my house to see my car in the damaged state it was in by the sidewalk. My phone was blown up by people asking if I was okay, but I just wanted to sink in my bed forever. Upon waking, the harsh reality of the damaged car confronted me. The summer that followed was a haze of depression, spent indoors, reliving the events repeatedly. The ruined car became a constant reminder of my teenage impulsiveness. My ignorant brain gave me a big wake-up call that would resonate with me for my entire life.

 

Before school started, I decided I needed to wake up and stop slugging. I got a job and saved overtime to get a new car. I now see these events as a learning experience, not just life attacking me and thinking the world is against me. I needed to develop habits I could learn from this, so I decided to take up reading books, spend at least one day at a park, and enjoy life outside my room. In every experience I go through in life, I always have the same scene repeating through the back of my head. The time was almost near for our senior year, and I needed to prepare for our final year in high school. I got my bag ready and charged every electronic device before sleeping. I scrolled through photos of the crash, seeing how I became a better person afterward. Approaching senior year, I prepared for the inevitable question echoing in every classroom:

 

“How was your summer?”