That Moment When...

That moment when your entire life changes
shocked by a single event or a single song.
When....

A few days a friend of mine got hit by a car in a foreign country. Something like changes your entire mentality - your priorities. Events like this - especially ones that happen to people whom you value and care about so deeply - make you think about those kinds of moments in your own life. What would you have done? What moment in your own life have changed you like that?

I've gotten hit by cars twice - at least that I remember vividly. The first time was in New York City in 7th grade. Our school was divided between two buildings/brownstones that faced each other on 89th St. and Central Park West. That day I got really upset and angry - I think it had something to do with two friends of mine - but I remember crossing the street in a fury, not paying any attention to anything except that feeling of anger. Suddenly, through the fog of anger, the sound of screeching tires and honking reached - and I accelerated fast. Not fast enough though, the bumper hit my legs and the acrid smell of overheated tires filled my nose. The force of the tires caused me to flop ungainly onto the hood of the car. I was fine - shaken but fine. Nothing serious so I didn't really understand why our school's guard kept shouting. He insisted on getting me back across the street and calling my parents. All I cared about was getting to class - and not getting my parents involved but he called anyway.

The second time was my first semester at college. I was late for class and the university had put the overflow of students into a hotel across the river so I had to tackle a 4 or 6 lane expressway, a bridge and then a 4 lane avenue split by train tracks. The appropriate pedestrian crossing in front of the hotel was taking too long to change to green... so I decided to try the second crossing down the street - but it was taking too long to get to it. I needed to get to class so a fellow pedestrian and I decided to try our luck crossing through the middle - where there were no lights or crosswalks. We both got to the middle of the street without any issue. Then nobody stopped. I had to get to class so I picked a moment when the incoming cars were far enough away. The first car stopped....but the car behind it either didn't see me or didn't understand the car in front of it had stopped, so he gunned it. Then as I passed the side of the stopped car, the car behind it didn't stop fast enough but tried. I put out my hands and rolled across the hood of the car, stopping on the side to catch my breath. The driver honked and screeched at me, "Idiot!" was the general gist of what she said. I stood up and walked away - my hands throbbing from the impact and my body shaking slightly from the overload of adrenaline. The other girl who had tried to cross with me asked if I was ok. I was.

My two experiences with getting hit by a car were nowhere as serious as what happened to my friend. Nowhere serious enough to change me - or put me in danger. I mean there was a lot of danger...but I came away both times with only a heightened pulse.

So my almost-maybe-car-accidents don't really count, at least not to me. I'm a very clumsy person and I don't pay nearly enough attention to my surroundings - especially when they're moving. So in a way it's a given. I've got 5 scars on my face, and 5 others spread about my body.

Back to my original question: what experience changed in an instant? Have I had a moment when my mortality has smacked me in the face?