Taiwan part 1- the accident

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Life really works in mysterious ways. 

On the third day into our trip we were visiting the Long Shan Temple and I was inspired by the people praying there to also make a few prayers myself. I consider myself more spiritual than religious and lately I had started to pray in order to remind myself the things I'm grateful for and to help with the things that are bothering me. 

Long Shan Temple

While I was there, I boiled it all down and came up with the four most important focuses for myself which I also wanted to reflect on as like some sort of theme for my trip. Or maybe like my New Year's Resolutions even. 

They were: 
  1. Family- for their safety and happiness
  2. Strength- to have faith that it'll be alright
  3. Patience- for myself and the journey
  4. Peace- to live without judgement, anger, or fear
During my trip, I was able to reflect on a lot of different things that were bothering me this last year and I felt more secure about having to deal with my struggles because of this foundation I had made for myself.

And then the accident happened. 

We were in the south part of Taiwan, which is more rural, and it had been raining pretty heavily that day. My great-uncle was driving and we were heading back home after a pretty long day. Me and my siblings had all fallen asleep, so we don't really know exactly what happened, but somehow my great-uncle lost control of the car and we swerved off the road and flipped over. 

Since I was napping, I felt the car tumbling but it all happened really fast and I didn't open my eyes until after the car had stopped moving. I just remember one of my sisters yelling "Oh my God!" and I just responded, "calm down and just breathe." Then I took a couple of breaths myself while pushing myself up (since we were upside down) and then looked for a way out of the car. 

We had fallen into a small ditch on the side of the road and my side of the car was against the hill but I was able to open it enough to squeeze out with some help from some people who had stopped to make sure we were OK. Me and all my siblings were able to climb out but my great-uncle had to get pulled out by the firemen. 

When I had first realized the car flipped over I just thought, OK there's been an accident, we need to get out of the car. Like it was as easy as just opening the door and walking out of a car that wasn't flipped over. I was pretty focused, made sure my siblings were all OK (there was a lot of blood), that my great-uncle was still alive (he was talking), that help was coming, and that we needed to let my family know. 

Not to mention, we were in a foreign country and I had to say everything in Chinese. 

We ended up staying at a hospital for a couple of days and my brother and sister had to get stitches but we all got away with relatively minor injuries. 

They're smiling cuz we're about to have some cake 

I never really believed in "signs" from God or the universe before but I've always felt that we give meaning to things that happen to help us make sense of it. And I don't know exactly how to explain it, but this accident happened right when I was ready to receive this message. 

That I have really good instincts and that I can trust myself. 

I really do think that in times of stress, people's true colors come out. And I feel like I'd somehow forgotten who I was. That I've always been capable of taking care of myself and others. That when I want to go from point A to point B, I'm very practical in knowing what the important steps are and then getting it done without over-thinking it. That when it really matters, I am a strong and focused person. And when the accident happened, I think that I reacted in the best way I could've without even having to think about it.

And I feel like it's a gift that's been given to me because not everyone will necessarily respond or deal the same way.

It's not to say that I didn't want to break down at times. When people asked me if I was OK, and I said I was fine, it took a lot in me to not want to cry and scream, I'm in a foreign country, and I want my parents, and I could've lost someone... NO I'M NOT OK.  

But then I'd go back to my four pillars and it helped me not freak out. It was like all the things I had been struggling with helped me prepare myself to deal with something to actually worry about. 

This past year, my biggest struggle has been whether or not I could trust myself. If I was capable of handling myself or if I could even handle this life. And I don't really know how else I would've regained my confidence other than something like this happening. 
Some other minor comments: we really were very lucky. There are a lot of accidents in the area we crashed and they're usually pretty serious. Also the name of the place sounds like the two characters of my great-uncle's name (he was the one driving) but reversed. Talk about freaky.

Lastly, SEAT BELTS SAVES LIVES


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