Getting Hit By A Car In Scotland!

As the title of this blog suggests, I was hit by a car last Thursday! Casual right?!

Spoiler: I’m fine. I didn’t want you to read this blog and think that I was seriously injured. But I did want to write about my experience. So here we go.

Many people at St. Andrews have bikes! It is a 20 minute walk to get from where I live to town, so students have bikes to get where they need to go. So as I was biking on a main road, a woman didn’t stop at a stop sign, didn’t look to see who was coming, and we collided.

Do you know what its like when you get hit by a car? Everyone probably would react differently. I fell off my bike, the woman got out of her car and started apologizing profusely. I stood up, miraculously uninjured, but totally stunned. Someone came over to help me, and I picked up my bike, told the woman I was fine and to “have a really nice day” (and yes, I did sincerely mean that), and I walked away. It took me a little over an hour to get over the shock of it happening. I went to the doctor and she diagnosed me with bad whiplash, but she told me I should be ok soon.

Now it is Saturday and I’m thinking about this whole incident on many different levels.

1: I was HIT BY A CAR, I wasn’t wearing a helmet, and I didn’t hit my head. I didn’t have any major injuries. What are the chances of that?

2: Other than telling the woman who hit me that I was fine, I actually made sure I wished her a really great day. Why did I feel it was so necessary to tell her to have a great day?

3: I found out that this happens to many people. One girl I talked to said that this is the third time one of her friends got hit by a car. How is that acceptable and not reinforced?!?!

4: Was this some kind of message? I have been a little homesick lately so maybe this was some higher power’s way of telling me to snap out of it?

Immediately after it happened, I wrote this down.

“I could be dead right now. So I’ve decided to use this as a wake up call. I need to continually appreciate my time abroad and start doing meaningful things while I’m here.”

Moral of the story: I’m sorry for not blogging more in the month of October but I’ve had a lot of work to catch up on after this minor accident! In a way, it was a great wake up call for me and my abroad experience. After it happened, I booked a trip to Paris and London (which I did state in a previous blog that those are two of the most typical places anyone can go) but I am so beyond excited! I am going to see Les Mis in London too!! I’m also planning on going to many Christmas Markets in as many cities as possible! Because Thanksgiving isn’t really a holiday here, Christmas season starts early!

Anyways, have a great day, and don’t get hit by a car!

Jackie x

P.S. I have been signing my name with an “x” because people here do that! It is a term of endearment.

P.P.S. Here is a picture of a castle that I went to recently. Does anyone recognize it?! It was in a movie (if you look at what the people in the picture are doing I bet you can guess!). That movie is going to be the theme of my next blog!!

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