Caretta Lucía
First draft
The hardest lessons
Everybody has a subject at Uni that they simply want to pass. The process of learning is not
pleasant and it isn’t important to pass it with flying colours. What is important is to be able to
say you don’t have to deal with it anymore ever again. To me that subject was History.
I don’t know why, but even though I never thought myself to be a history hater, I found the
subject tedious. During the term, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay attention in class. So, this
meant I had a lot to catch up on for my final exam and that I would have to pull my socks up in
order to pass it. Therefore, I spent night after night studying for it.
The day of the exam I pulled an all-nighter and crammed. Not only had I already drunk four
coffees by six am but I was preparing the fifth one while revising the last few topics. That was
the last revision I was going to make before calmly driving to the University. Scared and
nervous as I was, I still hoped my efforts would pay off and I could finally say goodbye to Mr.
Robbinson and pray not to see him ever again. Unfortunately, something far worse than failing
an exam awaited me.
Driving to the university was already second nature to me, so I took the highway only ten
minutes after I had left home. Adele was playing on the radio at a low volume while I was
racking my brains trying to remember all the Kings England had from the tenth to the
seventeenth century. I had learned them by heart that same morning since I had realised that
rote learning was the only possible way for me to remember them. Suddenly, my phone rang
and, when I tried to pick it up in order to take the call, I dropped it. For a split second, I thought
the call might be about any changes or relevant information about the exam. I didn’t hesitate
like I should have and I bent down to get it. All I saw after that was pitch black.
I woke up late that same morning in a hospital room. My mother was right beside me with
dried tears on her face. She told me I had been in an accident on my way to university. I had
crossed to the opposite lane and a van had hit me. Unconsciously, I must’ve steered the wheel
Caretta Lucía
First draft
to the left. The car was destroyed and I got my leg broken in the crash. While she began to
explain how a well-qualified doctor had performed surgery on my leg, all my mind could think
about was the exam and how I had shot myself in the foot.
Until it dawned on me. I had been in a major accident where I could’ve died if I hadn’t been so
lucky. It was not the time to get worried about my exam or about having to take it months from
now. It was the time for me to realise that an exam is nothing more than that, that life doesn’t
begin or end with it, but that life can in fact end for not paying attention to what I’m doing and
worrying too much.
If the car crash hadn´t happened, I wouldn´t have realised that life can end in the blink of an
eye and that I must try to enjoy every second of it. Although it seems pretty obvious, it is no
secret that the lessons we should know like the back of our hands are always the hardest to
learn.