How Precious Life Is...
My morning started with hearing the traffic report on my alarm clock radio. An earlier collision shut down the intersection of Heron and Riverside. Oh brother, I thought to myself, it's going to take forever to get to my 8:30am class (which is only 90 minutes long).
I live about a 5 to 7 minute drive from campus, but usually have to leave by 8 to get parking and walk across campus, wait for an elevator, and finally arrive to class on time.
Wanting to avoid Riverside, which I usually take to get to campus, I think to myself, I should go to the Bronson entrance of Carleton and take Airport Parkway. At Hunt Club, the overpass of the Parkway was bumper-to-bumper so I decided to turn around to take the normal way and sit in traffic.
At this point it's 8:15 and getting really annoyed. I'm going to be late!
Riverside is a parking lot and the police have closed it off at Brookfield now.
Great, what a way to start a morning.
I finally arrive on campus and decide to pay for parking, because it's almost 9am and I just don't have time to go up 10 floors of a parking garage, and walk across campus.
Whew, what a friggen day. I'm late for class, and had lots of time to contemplate and be super annoyed with Ottawa's inability to handle it's transportation/artery road system. The same spots always tied up in the morning. I think to myself, don't those radio DJs get annoyed saying the same congested intersections every 10 minutes?
I arrive home from my class just over an hour later, open my email and find out that the car accident that had closed the intersection and connecting roads had killed 3 of my fellow Carleton students, and injuring two others (one critically).
How selfish I was. How selfish, most of us are, who would understandibly reacted in the same way that I did.
Me, me, me. I'm late for work/school. I had a place to be. Why is everyone is MY way.
But how precious life is. RIP Mark Macdonald, Vanessa Crawford and Brianne Deschamps. While I didn't know you, I may have passed you in the halls once or twice.
So the next time you're stuck in traffic, or that jerk cuts you off going 80km/h in a 50, or some twit hogs the passing lane, just think that it could be some parent or husband or wife, driving to a hospital to see their son, or driving across the province to identify their daughter.
While yes we live in a inconsiderate society, cut people some slack too.
I live about a 5 to 7 minute drive from campus, but usually have to leave by 8 to get parking and walk across campus, wait for an elevator, and finally arrive to class on time.
Wanting to avoid Riverside, which I usually take to get to campus, I think to myself, I should go to the Bronson entrance of Carleton and take Airport Parkway. At Hunt Club, the overpass of the Parkway was bumper-to-bumper so I decided to turn around to take the normal way and sit in traffic.
At this point it's 8:15 and getting really annoyed. I'm going to be late!
Riverside is a parking lot and the police have closed it off at Brookfield now.
Great, what a way to start a morning.
I finally arrive on campus and decide to pay for parking, because it's almost 9am and I just don't have time to go up 10 floors of a parking garage, and walk across campus.
Whew, what a friggen day. I'm late for class, and had lots of time to contemplate and be super annoyed with Ottawa's inability to handle it's transportation/artery road system. The same spots always tied up in the morning. I think to myself, don't those radio DJs get annoyed saying the same congested intersections every 10 minutes?
I arrive home from my class just over an hour later, open my email and find out that the car accident that had closed the intersection and connecting roads had killed 3 of my fellow Carleton students, and injuring two others (one critically).
How selfish I was. How selfish, most of us are, who would understandibly reacted in the same way that I did.
Me, me, me. I'm late for work/school. I had a place to be. Why is everyone is MY way.
But how precious life is. RIP Mark Macdonald, Vanessa Crawford and Brianne Deschamps. While I didn't know you, I may have passed you in the halls once or twice.
So the next time you're stuck in traffic, or that jerk cuts you off going 80km/h in a 50, or some twit hogs the passing lane, just think that it could be some parent or husband or wife, driving to a hospital to see their son, or driving across the province to identify their daughter.
While yes we live in a inconsiderate society, cut people some slack too.
posted by Spitfire at 8:32 PM
3 Comments:
Wow, good thing you were late. Sorry to hear about your fellow students, that's an unfortunate thing to happen. Say... weren't you the one who said driving 150kph from Ottawa to Toronto was ok though?
... Maybe we can all slow down out there.
A sad day. I was thinking about the accident, hoping it wasn't one of the bloggingtories, as so many seem to be at Universities.
Raphael,
I believe the original blog post said 130-140km/h
Since that post, I got my first speeding ticket. Only $56, but enough to make me feel less invincible.
Hunter,
Thanks for your comment. In the blogging worl, unless you know them personally, if a blogger stops posting, you have no idea if they just gave up on it, or if they were sick or even worse died!
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