<p>3, 2, 1, GO! We ran, and then dove. It wasnt the dive into the cool water of the Red Cedar River that forever changed my life, but it was the log that was about a foot below the surface.
There was blood everywhere; It covered the front of my white t-shirt, my hands, and my face. It was as if somebody exploded a can of red paint right in front of me. I could feel that the front of my mouth had been pushed back a couple inches and I could feel my front teeth pushing down on the bottom of my mouth. My friends, who later told me I was laughing as I was spitting out teeth, helped me to safety.
Fast forward
Im on the blue stretcher in an ambulance racing the twenty or so miles to the hospital. Youre really lucky to be alive. The words of the man trying to put an IV in my arm in the bumpy ambulance echoed through my mind.
Pretty soon after that I was lying in one of those awesome hospital beds with the remote control that seems to have a button for everything. Unfortunately on this particular trip to the hospital I didnt get to fully enjoy the hospital bed experience because there was the possibility that I might be paralyzed and the fact that I had to call the nurse in every five minutes to use one of those dentist suction tubes for your spit. It always puts a smile on my face when Im spitting into that tube at the dentist, but when I was spitting a mouthful of blood into that suction tube in the emergency room, it just wasnt as enjoyable.
The oral surgeon came in. The good news was that I wasnt paralyzed. The bad news was that I had lost 6 teeth, and I would have to sit on that cold hard stainless steel bed for the next couple hours while they pulled my gums up and sewed them back in place. One of the last things my oral surgeon said before the surgery started was that if I had hit that log an inch or two higher or lower, there was a good chance I would have broken my neck.
My accident was a bridge in my life, on one side was my old life, and on the other side of the bridge was the point in my life that I started living. After my accident I realized I was given a second chance at life. I have lived my life with no regrets. I have put my best effort into everything I do, whether it be academics, friendships, leadership, or athletics. However, there is one lesson that towers above every other change I have undergone since that fateful day in May: I learned to enjoy life itself.</p>
<p>OK i changed the last paragraph for all you haters out there :) I'm JK, i am so thankful for those of you who critiqued my essay, so here is my second draft, tell me what you think.</p>