Tomorrow is not promised…

We all know that saying but do we really understand it? It seems that people are drawn to the simplicity of this powerful statement, but overlook the true meaning. This saying has become more of a sound byte for me over the past years, and I have used it frequently to get a point across.

Anyways, yesterday I became the closest I ever have to understanding this statement fully. It was a typical Wednesday: full of work. My brain was fried from fairly brain-less work at the hospital all day, then I went home ate, changed clothes and was out the door in less than 45min. As I was heading to the restraint to stand behind the bar for the rest of the night I was awakened from my numb state. Driving on the same path to work that I have driven on many times before something different happened. I almost became an unwilling participant in a head on collision with an SUV. It was crazy. While this scenario never played out (thankfully) it still had an impact on me.

In short I was turning into a left hand turn lane on a two lane road, when a young man driving a large SUV (I drive a small two door coupe) was seemingly texting on his cell, drifted ALL THE WAY into the left hand turn lane, AS I was turning into it. He didn’t see me or realize he was heading straight into my car. We were both going about 40mph, and working in a hospital for the last five years I have come to learn that it does not take much speed to kill. Luckily I was paying attention and I swerved back into the lane I came from without causing an accident.
That woke me up. I have never been that close (knowingly) to something of that magnitude, personally. The above mentioned ‘sound-byte’ took on a whole new meaning for me. Tomorrow is not promised. Personally seeing how easy it is for one split second to change your life drove this message into my mind.