The other day as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw a tragic article headline from my local online newspaper. Three words stood out to me: “THREE TEENS DEAD”. I obviously clinked on the link, wondering if anyone I knew had been involved. The article stated how four kids from the Walterboro, South Carolina area were speeding down the highway, clocked by a police officer at 109 mph. The cop had then pulled out behind them but was unable to attempt stopping them before they exited the highway. The sharp right-hand exit has a speed limit of 25 mph, which the driver was unable to navigate at such a high speed. He lost control and in-turn, three of the kids in the car lost their lives.

The first thing that came to my mind was, “Wow, they were going really fast off that exit, I’ve never even broken 100 mph on a straightaway,” but as I continued to divulge the article I saw that these three kids who passed away were high school graduates as of a couple days passed. The one kid who did survive with some serious injuries will be a senior in high school in the upcoming fall.

What really hit me hard though is when I was talking about the tragedy with my mom. Her words to me were, “Audrey kids just think they’re indestructible” and I realized THAT IS SO TRUE. Coming back with one year of college down, I’ve realized my parents were almost always right already but this truly hit me hard. In high school and in college most kids just live without even considering that in the blink of an eye, their life could be over. They speed around in their cars, drink until they blackout, and even just do stupid crazy things for the thrill of it, but what we don’t take into account is that we can mostly control what danger we get ourselves into, but we almost never control what danger of which we are able to come out.

Life is a gift. Yes, I know that is such a cliché statement but it really is. For us students, it is one more drink until alcohol poisoning, one trip into an unsafe area of town to get some drugs that kill our insides, and one wrong turn that can send our cars crashing into something we will never know. God controls how much time we live on this earth, not us.

If you are reading it, yes you have made it this far so congratulations. But what are you doing to make sure that you are able to live ever second of your life to the fullest? Every minute is important because in the blink of an eye it can be all over. You can say no to your friends when they are doing something that can potentially be threatening, and discourage them from doing those things as well. My heart goes out to the kid who did survive the car accident, he probably lost three of his best friends to a situation that could have very well been prevented if they just would have taken a second to think about what they were doing.

I pray blessings for each of the families who lost a loved one that day. But, I thank those kids, once so full of life, for the warning they give to me and all of my friends. Make the best decisions for you and your loved ones today.