When Brent Murray was 16-years-old, he was about to leave school and began to pull out of the parking lot and hit a parked car nearby. “I was in my little Ford Festiva and my head went through the windshield,” said Murray. 

   According to Edgar Snyder and associates, around 2,700 drivers in their teens were killed and over 2,200,000 injured. Around 4,000 teens between the ages of 13-19 are killed in car accidents each year.

   “I can’t even remember how I ended up crashing; it all just kind of happened,” said Murray. The crash ended up bringing Murray close to his mother; Murray mentioned that his mother is his biggest role model and someone he will always look up to. 

   “Every weekend for months we would have to go to the hospital, and every time I didn’t need surgery my mom would take me to get ice cream,” said Murray. He knew it was childish for a 16 year old to go get ice cream with his mom after hearing good news, but Murray was an avid basketball player and the surgery could  have set him back 2 seasons. 

   Luckily, after many weekends, Murray was told with a final answer that he would not need surgery and would be able to play next season. Murray said,  “That was one of the happiest moments of my life!”

   After this event, Murray realized that life was too short to spend stressing all of the little things that went wrong in his life. Murray said, “With my students, of course, I want them to do good, but I’m not going to care more than they do.”

Jordan Pazos, Guest Reporter