Halloween is usually a fun day for kids. During the day you get to go to school and show off your costume to your fellow classmates and see who has the best costume. At night you go around your neighborhood trick-or-treating, competing with your friends to see who will get the most and best candy of the night.
I used to love Halloween. I would walk around my neighborhood with my younger neighbor while our parents gave out candy. At the end of the night we would go back to one of our houses, dump out our candy on the floor, and trade the candy we didn't like for the ones that we liked.
My love for Halloween changed on a Halloween night in 2014. The day started differently than normal, I had to be at school earlier than usual. Every Halloween at my high school there is a costume parade where the seniors walk around the campus with the preschoolers. I was dressed as a lion and my little preschooler was dressed like Anna from Frozen.
After the parade, the day continued in a normal manner where I attended my classes. I was ecstatic for the day to end, it was not only Halloween, but it was also Friday. I rushed home right at 3, where I met my mom and was welcomed with the smell of candy (not for me, for the kids trick-or-treating).
I impatiently waited for the clock to strike 6 to cross the street to my neighbor's house so we could start the hunt for candy. Halloween is a pretty big deal in my neighborhood, people go all out in decorating. Many people drive from other towns to our neighborhood for the decorations. And the candy. Since I've lived in my neighborhood my whole life, I know the good streets to hit to get the most candy.
My neighbor and I quickly went through the neighborhood and were promptly done getting candy by 7:30 p.m. when we headed back to our street. We turned the corner, where we saw a police car sitting in the middle of the street with its lights on. As we got closer, I told my neighbor to go back to her house so that I could go across the street and find out what happened from my mom.
I ran across the street and there was no sign of my mom outside. I started to panic a little bit, but then I thought, maybe she is in the house. But before I reached my house I was approached by my next door neighbor who said, "It's your mom." Panic started to kick in as I fell to my knees in disbelief that this could be happening to me. When my neighbor said "It's your mom" I automatically assumed she was dead.
Lucky for me, this was not the case. I was relieved to find out my mom was still alive after being hit by a pickup truck. However, it was still upsetting seeing my mom laying on the street unable to move and being in and out of consciousness. I was surrounded by my neighbors while hysterically crying as I was in disbelief and had no idea what to do.
Someone finally got through to 9-1-1 and they were going to send an ambulance. This night was my first time in an ambulance and hopefully my last. I was all by myself, scared in the ER with my injured mom and had no idea how to handle the situation. Eventually, one of my neighbors joined me in the ER while I waited for my aunt and uncle to show up. This event changed my life and ruined my senior year of high school. However, people heal and eventually my life went back to normal.
To this day I can still remember and can still visualize the tragic event that occurred on October 31, 2014. My life has forever been changed by this event, but I am so grateful to still have my mom with me and I've learned to not take things for granted because you never know what could happen.
