I have been going to my grandpa’s cabin as long as I can remember. When I go up to the cabin, my cousins and I do three things: hunt, fish, and four wheel. I love fishing up there in the summer, and hunting in the fall, but my favorite daily activity is fourwheeling. I love feeling the wind blow by my face, and hitting the mud after a good rainfall. Sometimes, we go on long rides that are over thirty miles long, and other times we just ride down the road a little ways to an old logging road that gets a lot of big puddles to rip through. In the time in between, we ride around “the loop”. Our cabin is located in a big loop with woods in the middle, and a gravel road that runs around it. It had always been a good place for me and my cousins to perfect our skills on the four wheelers. We had never had any trouble riding around the loop, but one day that changed.

It started out just like any other day. Me and my cousins got up bright and early at 6:00 to get a good start on the fishing. We then fished until about 9:00. Then my grandpa called to us that breakfast was ready. We chowed down on some eggs, toast, and bacon and then decided it was a good time to start fourwheeling. We ripped around the loop for a little bit, then went back to fishing. Then after we ate lunch, we decided to go on another quick ride around the loop. We had three fourwheelers going out on this quick ride, and I was in the middle between my two cousins.  

My grandpa had always told us to keep distance between ourselves so that no one would get rear ended. So we set off, with some space between us, and we were having a good time riding. We were riding on the outer edge of the loop, so we were driving with all of the driveways on our right, unless we were on a straight away on one of the sides. There’s a hill on one of the sides of the loop, and I was coasting to let my cousin get up it so that I could gun it up, and not have to worry about rear ending him. My other cousin was behind me a little ways, and little did I know that he had stopped to let a truck leave his driveway. The truck driver looked at my cousin, and then came flying out of his driveway. He never did look ahead though and before he knew it he had hit me! I had been rear ended and I was flung off my four wheeler and projected to the side of the road, and somehow I had landed on my feet. I was fine, but the four wheeler was a different story. It had a busted headlight, and crooked handlebars, and a few issues with the engine, but besides that it was nothing that we couldn’t repair. I had learned something though that I will never forget.

I had always went to Sunday school when I was little, and I would go to church too, but I didn’t really know a good example in my lifetime of God effecting me with his work. I had always heard stories about his work, but I had never experienced anything like that personally. That day when my older cousin helped me get the fourwheeler running again, and I was heading back to the cabin, I all of a sudden got shaky and once what had happened actually set in, I realized that I could’ve been seriously injured. I could’ve not let go of the handlebars and I could’ve landed under the four wheeler. Or I could’ve been thrown in front of the truck and I might’ve been crushed by its tires. I could’ve gotten badly hurt and I might not have been able to enjoy the things in life that I had loved to do. I realized that something helped me come away unhurt and without a scratch. The Lord had helped me survive that accident and I had been truly blessed. There had been 46 deaths due to ATVs in Wisconsin from 2012-2014, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commision, and this accident happened in 2014, so I am very happy that another death wasn’t added to that total. I don’t know how things would’ve shaken out if it happened any differently, but I know it could’ve ended badly. I had started to find my faith.

  When I was rear ended, it was a real eye opener for me. I had found my personal example of God doing his work. I became a lot more appreciative of what I’ve got in this life, and I decided that I wanted to try to be the best that I can be everyday. I also got involved more in the church, and I feel that I am now a better person. I now pay more attention to my pastor’s sermons, and I feel like I’m getting more out of them because I can relate better to them. Being rear ended wasn’t a good experience by any means, but it helped me to start to establish my faith.

We still ride around the loop today, but when we do it, we ride going in the opposite direction. I have put the accident behind me, and I don’t hold any grudges against the driver who hit me, which I think shows that I have become a more mature, better person, because I know in the past I would’ve probably held a grudge. Sometimes something good can come out of the worst situations. I think that had happened to me that day. Today I am still learning more about the person that I want to be, and the faith that I want to have. Being hit that one day though is definitely what kickstarted my faith, and I am happy that the Lord helped me with that.