Many times people ask me if I am paying for my college, or if my parents are. The true answer is that an insurance company is. This is why.

It was Halloween, 1998, and I was dressed up as a pirate. It was a good costume because I had the bandana on my head, a patch on my eye, and some pretty good make up on my face. The clothes my mom and I put together made it perfect. My brother and I had the place we were going scoped out and everything and we knew we had to be fast to fill up the pillow cases that we were bringing to carry our candy. We were going to Lexington Hills, the richest neighborhood in Eagle (this was before the huge influx of Californians came to Idaho and started building subdivisions anywhere there was land).

We met up with family friends who had two kids of their own. Of course we didn't let our parents talk too much because we were already running behind schedule and we had to hit the houses before people started turning their lights off. Off we went up to the houses, ring the doorbell, say "trick or treat", and then run back to the sidewalk to repeat the cycle.

The night went great, but just like every year, I didn't quite fill up the pillow case with candy. That could be attributed to the fact that my dad asked for candy every few houses (and slowed down our progress), and the fact that I would eat a lot of the good candy that I got. But anyway, we got back to the house of the family that we went with, and we all spread out our candy on the ground (of course, keeping it segregated and attacking anyone who looked at it wrong). We stayed and gorged ourselves for a bit, while we waited for our parents to get ready to go. Finally, they told us to stop eating all of the candy (as my dad took another piece), and to get ready to go. We were walking out when my mom said that she had to go to the bathroom and that she would meet us outside. So we got in the van and waited. My dad was driving, and my brother and I were on the bench seat right behind them, with me by the door (passenger side) and my brother by the window (driver’s side). My mom got in and sat in the passenger seat.

The night wasn't over for me because we were going to the Albertsons to get food for my birthday breakfast, since my birthday was the next day. We were going to drive down Floating Feather and turn right on Eagle to get to Albertsons. My parents were asking what I wanted for breakfast as we came up to the intersection of Eagle and Floating Feather. This was before they had a light in at that intersection, and I think I know why they put one in shortly after. We came to a stop, yielded, and then proceeded to make a left turn. I remember looking to my right out the window, and seeing two headlights that were awfully close and then hearing a huge "boom". I didn't realize what had happened immediately until I looked around. My brother was crying, my mom was trying to get her door open (which wouldn't happen because we got hit around there), my dad was trying to help, and the window next to me was completely blown out. Wait... the entire door was smashed in so that it was touching the bench my brother and I were sitting on. There was something warm running down my face. I reached up and felt the blood. My parents were probably telling me what to do but I couldn't hear anything. I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out the window. I realized that we were right next to the light pole in the intersection, and I had no idea how we had gotten over here but I sat down next to it. I looked down the road and saw half a dozen people on their cell phones, and one guy ran up to me and gave me a blanket. At some point my parents got out and started asking if I was ok. It was all such a blur. At some point the cops showed up, and an ambulance. They took the guy who hit us first because he was worse off, and then another ambulance came and took me. I guess the rest of my family was fine, because my dad rode with me to make sure I was ok, and my mom and brother went to get a car from home so that we could drive back from the hospital.

The ambulance ride felt pretty quick (but they didn't even turn on their sirens I think. I didn't hear them and it seems like we stopped a lot). We got to the hospital and they put a neck brace on me. They weren't sure if I had anything wrong with my neck, and they wanted to be sure. After some X-rays, they took off the brace and decided to work on the part that was in need of work. The wounds on my face that had been bleeding all over the place. There were cuts on my nose and lip and it took 30 stitches of pain, and stuff running down my throat before they finally let me go home.

Later on, we found out that the guy who hit us had a blood alcohol content of .4 (which is .4% I found out much later). He had gone through his windshield when he hit us, which is why he got the first ambulance. Unfortunately, he survived. When we went back to the car to check it out about a week later, I realized that my mom's seat had been pushed over 45 degrees, and that lead to about two years of pain in her back and neck. The guy had no insurance so my parent's insurance covered it, but my mom had no physical injuries, so she got nothing. All the guy got for the whole ordeal was 120 days in jail and probation (which he broke). But when he was in jail, his dad died, and he couldn't leave jail to go to his funeral, which I think was way more punishment than anyone should have to take.

Out of it, the insurance company gave my parents $18,000 for my injuries, and $9,000 to my brother. That turned into $21,000 for me after sitting in a mutual fund for a few years, and is what I am going to college on. At this point it is a chapter in my life, that I am only reminded of by the scar on the underside of my nose, and the scar tissue still in my upper lip. Chapter closed.