Got Lucky? Well, I've Got 100 Lives

In honor of St. Patrick's day this week, I have been realizing lately that I am so lucky. It's almost ridiculous how lucky I am! I can't help but even chuckle a little at the thought of it.

When I meet people and they find out everything that I have been through, they almost always tell me how unlucky I am.

I BEG TO DIFFER.

Unlucky? No. Clumsy and accident-prone? OH YES. Lucky? Yes.

People think that cats have 9 lives. Well, folks, I think I have about 100 lives. 

Granted, I have had lots of experiences in my life that make me lucky to be alive, but I have had four experiences in the past month or so that have only reinforced how truly lucky I am---possibly the luckiest person around.

First reinforcement came about a month ago. I had one of those mental breakdown days when I am just so completely overwhelmed with everything in my life. I had so much on my plate that I didn't know where to start, so like always, I headed to the temple. I was driving there and noticed that traffic was the most I had ever seen on this road. {For those of you familiar with Provo, I was driving down 900---the same road as the MTC} I thought to myself that it was just because it was 4:00 and maybe everyone was finishing school. It wasn't horrible, just I seemed to wait for a couple rounds at each light before I could get through. Then, I reached the point where the traffic was bottle-necked. Oncoming traffic was coming into the left lane of the traffic going my direction. As I approached it, I saw an accident. It didn't look too bad at first. There was a van stopped right before the crosswalk at Heritage Halls with a car directly behind it. This car looked to have hit the back of the van. Then, there was another van that appeared to have swerved to miss the accident and was turned 90 degrees the opposite direction as the other cars. That, too, didn't look too bad. I couldn't even see dents in the cars! But then I saw the real reason why this accident had happened. There was a boy laying motionless in the crosswalk. He had dark hair, and it looked as though the people in all the cars had gotten out and were surrounding him. One man was putting a blanket on him and another girl was kneeling next to his head. She was on the phone and hysterical. Her other hand was caressing his head. The kid had been hit by a car. Police hadn't even arrived on the scene. 

I'm not going to lie. It scared the heck out of me. I am pretty sure I was traumatized from the image that I saw. I started bawling. Things like this really pull at my heart. Just as I arrived at the temple, the ambulance passed. I never saw the accident on the news or anything, so I am guessing the kid is still alive. I pray that he is okay.

Most of you already know, but for those that don't, I was hit by a car my freshmen year of high school. This is my story: I attended early morning seminary with my brother, and one morning, I didn’t pay much attention to my knee for another six weeks or so. I attended early morning seminary with my older brother, Sam. It was the morning after daylight savings, so when we arrived at school at 6:50, it was still dark outside. Normally, we arrived at 6:45, but just before we left, my family had scriptures and prayers like we did every morning, but then I had a prompting to put on my knee brace for school that day. Thankfully, I listened to the prompting. We parked in the back parking lot, then walked through the school so that we could cross the street for seminary. As I walked out the main doors of the high school, I oddly walked out the far left door. The odd part was that this door was broken. I knew it. Everyone knew it, but I still tried to go out of it. It wouldn’t open easily, and I ended up hurting my elbow from running into it. I struggled through the door, and stood on the sidewalk for a second to hold my elbow. As I did, I looked up and had a prompting to memorize the three cars across the street dropping students off to seminary. Not only did I memorize the cars, but I memorized who got out of the cars as well. My brother and I continued towards the seminary building, and as we crossed the street, the oncoming cars made me very nervous. One car in particular seemed to be getting closer and closer, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t stop. I was a few paces behind my brother as the car approached, and it didn’t slow down at all. I realized it wasn’t going to stop, and I had to brace myself for the hit. Because of my knee, I couldn’t get out of the way. I screamed my brother’s name and go this attention just in time for him to get out of the way, but I wasn’t so lucky. The car hit me right on, and I was thrown on top of the hood---the car still not stopping. My brother was able to reach over fast enough to grab me and hold onto me. With his arm, I was able to roll off the hood. Both my feet got run over, but I was surprisingly ok. Sam hit his fist against the window, and I had never seen that angry look on Sam’s face before. I watched as the car sped off and turned the corner. My brother literally grabbed my bag and dragged me to the side of the road. I was trying to piece together what happened, and Sam looked me in the eye, and he was furious. He asked, “Are you okay?” I said, “Yes, Sam. I’m fine.” I started walking into the building and Sam grabbed my backpack again and said, “No, Alice. Are you okay?” I once again reassured him that I would be fine, and we proceeded to class.

I went into shock for a few hours, and as a result, I didn’t tell anyone what had happened. Finally, as I came out of shock, I figured I should call my mom. It wasn’t until then that I had realized the extent of everything was. I had been the victim of a hit and run. I had to go to the police, and eventually we got everything worked out. Because I had memorized the car, I was able to tell the police the kind of car, the color, and who got out of the car. Because of my knee brace, I walked away without a worse injury to me knee. The man that hit me was in my stake, and he hadn’t scraped his windows that morning. He truly had no idea that he had hit me, nor that I was on the hood of his car! The police left it up to my brother and I whether or not we would press charges. We both knew the man and his son, and we knew it wasn’t intentional. We also knew that they struggled financially, too. We came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to press charges, just make sure the man scraped his windows. Ultimately, my family and the police were left shaking their heads at the complete miracle that I walked away from the accident fine and that I had been thrown on top of the car instead of underneath the car. I know that I was being watched over that day. 

Recently, a sweet girl back home was hit by a car in the same spot that I was. She also was going to early morning seminary. She ended up in the hospital with injuries that require major surgery. 

Three weeks ago, I was driving to my intramural game from Jacob Farnsworth's place where he had just opened his mission call when I noticed at an intersection, there were three police cars that I could see. The next day, I learned that it was a student from BYU that was riding her long board across the street when she got hit by a car. She wasn't expected to live, but she miraculously has. She is still in the hospital recovering. I follow her recovery and story here.

People. When things like this happen, I can't help but ask myself why I was able to walk away with minimal injuries. Why me? I am incredibly lucky to be okay.

The second reinforcement came when just about a week after I witnessed the boy laying in the street, the dear family in Pocatello was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. Their story is here. 

The summer before my senior year, I was at a service project for my stake. We were cleaning up the Girl's Camp and since I could not lift anything due to my broken ribs, I volunteered to clean the bathrooms. In fact, this picture was taken right outside the bathroom that I cleaned. 

As you can see, the bathrooms are enclosed in this building with the only opening to the bathrooms and shower was this door. I was given a water pressurizer to spray down everything. After being enclosed with the water pressurizer for about two hours, someone came in and told me to hurry and get out. The building was full of carbon monoxide, and they had failed to tell me that. It never crossed my mind! I was sitting down in this picture taking a break. It wasn't until I sat down that I realized how light headed I felt. I had just been focused on cleaning the bathroom that I had not noticed. As the day progressed, I got a massive headache. The headache persisted for weeks, and my stomach constantly felt like it was queasy. I always felt like I was going to throw up. Not only that, but I was constantly waking up in the night shaking really bad, then it would all of a sudden stop---which was probably little seizures. It was the scariest thing. Everyone insisted that I was fine, so I never went to the doctor, but I know those were all a result of the carbon monoxide. All of those are symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Why was I lucky enough to make it out of that when that family didn't? Just another life of mine that I spent.

Third realization came when I was driving. I am going to preface this with saying that I am a very good driver, and I am usually very observant. However, this one night in particular, my life felt like a blur. Something had just happened in my life that I had least expected to happen. That's how I can best describe it. My mind was occupied. Haha! Karen and Kathy and I had to run to the store, and on the way back, I was just driving. Then, halfway through an intersection, both Karen and Kathy started laughing and were like, "What are you doing? That light was red." You guys! I was in such a haze that I didn't even notice. I had run a red light! It is nothing short of a miracle that no cars were coming on either side. How often in Provo are you driving down Bulldog Boulevard and no one is coming through a green light. I don't know if I can even put into words how lucky we were to not be in an accident. Now, I try to be extra observant when I am driving! Haha! But once again, there went a life of mine.

Last, but not least, it was Valentine's Day, and I was going to spend the weekend with my Aunt Connie. I got a 3-day weekend, so I wanted to spend it with her. I decided I would stop at WinCo really quick and see if they had my lactose intolerance drinks in stock. Sure enough, they hadn't. I parked the cart and drove to Bluffdale. Saturday night, we went out, and when I grabbed my purse, my wallet wasn't in it. I didn't stress over that because it was probably on the seat of my car because I had gassed up my car in Orem. Monday came, and I went out to my car to grab my wallet. It wasn't there. I panicked. I checked every inch of my car, my bags, my purse, my bed. I retraced every step that I took, and I could not find it. I decided to call WinCo just to see if I had somehow left it there. I called and described it to them. They asked my name, and sure enough. They had it. I remembered that I had set it on the seat of the cart. When I parked the cart, I hadn't taken it with me. I accidentally left it there. Whoops. I picked it up the next day, and it had everything in it. This is a miracle. I had my Driver's License, debit card, BYU id, and a good sum of cash in there. My wallet is HUGE, and I utilize all of its space. Only in Utah would I be able to ever get my wallet back. Haha!

Even though that wasn't another life, it sure was a scare. I am sooooo lucky!

Anyways, I have a lot of experiences and evidence in my life that only confirms how lucky I am. In fact, I can even replace the word lucky with blessed, or even watched over. I know that I am watched over and protected. 

I must have something in this life that I really need to accomplish because I have had plenty of opportunities to not make it, yet every time, I do.

Happy March. Happy Spring. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

May luck be ever in your favor. 

:)