My First Fender Bender

In late 2004, I was in 11^th grade, a junior in high school. The presidential election was about to begin, and George W. Bush was about to win the election for a second straight year. I had just got my license the year before, and everything was going fine. One day when the forecast called for rain, my parents told me to take the car instead of walking. At the time of dismissal when everyone was leaving, I got into a "fender bender," and in the following paragraphs, I will sketch the event and provide my feelings after it happened, and my feelings today.

To begin, I will first talk about the event itself, and give a "sketch" of the setting. Since the forecast was saying rain, I anticipated bad weather when I was leaving school, but it was actually sunny outside. The parking lot at the time had three sections; two in front of the building, and one on the side of the building. I was parked in the lower lot out front, and when I got to the car, most of the other students had already left. When the bell rang for dismissal, it did not take long for everyone to leave. I get to my Dad's Taurus, put my stuff in the car, get in, and turn it on. I put the car in reverse, look to see if there are any cars and did not notice any. I then began to back up and the next thing I know I had bumped into another car. They were also backing up, and the driver was a student who I had known for some time. I parked the car and turned it off.

When it happened, I couldn't believe it. I got out of the car and looked to see what kind of damage there was. Luckily, there was only a small dent on their car, and on the car I was driving there were some scratches. When we were gathering each other's information, I was pretty nervous, mainly because something like that had never happened to me before. The other driver was not angry, and he had his mother driving with him. Both of them did not seem upset at all. I would say I did not share my reaction to anyone, but my Mother knew how I felt when I talked to her on the phone and when I got home. My parents were not angry, but upset that it had to happen on my first time driving to school, because I usually walked. Later in the day, I still felt angry at myself for getting in a fender bender, but those feelings went away pretty quickly.

Finally, I would have to say my feelings today have changed since then. At the time, however, I would say how I felt was reasonable. If it happened again today, I am not exactly sure how I would act. I'd probably be calmer, but I would also probably worry more about the money that would be needed to fix the car. Right now, I really do not think about the minor accident back in 11^th grade. It is in the past, and I can not do much about it. I drive almost everyday, so it is not a big deal at the moment, but it did have some effect on me driving. For example, I became a lot more cautious afterwards, even though it was a minor accident.

In Conclusion, while the accident was minor, it still had some impact on me when it happened. I'm glad it was only scratches and a dent, instead of something worse.