Yesterday, on day 1 of vacation 2 with my girlfriend, we were involved in a single-car accident (everyone is ok). Going down a backwoods highway in Mississippi, a big rig must have blown out a tire and the rubber portion was laying flat in the left hand lane. The car in front of me swerved at the last moment and kicked it off the ground. Due to a car on my right, I had nowhere to go and the tire smacked the front end of the car.

So we pulled off on the side of the road, assessed the damage, and determined the car was not drivable (the intake piping had fallen out from under the left front fender). I called HondaCare Roadside Assistance and they told me they would send a tow truck within the hour and take me to the closest dealership (about 18 miles away) and Mississippi Highway Patrol who said they would dispatch a patrol man. They both arrived the same time, and after several calls to family to just give an update and friends to say we’d obviously be late, we began the logistics run.

One thing everyone kept mentioning was the tornado that just hit the area. The only patrol man available was off duty and had to come due to the influx of tornado related assessments still being done one week later, and the tow truck man mentioned all the damaged cars. We called the dealership, whose part manager offered to stay late to help us (thanks Dossett Big 4). They called the local Enterprise who once again had someone stay late to help us. The parts manager at the Tupelo dealership was the only reason we were able to get a rental and continue our trip (shoutout to GEICO for making the rental process easy).

We got our rental car, went back to the dealership to get the remaining things out of my car, and after seeing all of the cars that had been damaged by the tornado, we were back on our way to Memphis. All the time thinking that it could’ve been worse. Somebody could’ve been hurt, could’ve blown a tire and been thrown into the ditch, it could’ve hit the windshield, a split second bad reaction could’ve ended in a multicar pileup, and so much more. But I wasn’t ready for the sobering reality that it could be so much worse.

This is what we drove past following our immediate turn back onto the highway. We had seen some damage outside of Birmingham but it was nothing compared to the magnitude of the damage in Tupelo (full gallery available here). It was eye opening to see that a little damage to a car is nothing compared to what these people, in the very community that will be fixing my damage, have been through in the past week. We drove through what looked like a scar through the trees and community. It was easy to see that it could’ve been much worse than what we had.

Out of this I learned a few valuable things, but mainly this. Bad situations suck, but most of the time they could be worse. That doesn’t mean to always look for the good in them, or to tell others to look for the good in them. But sometimes you just have to take the positives out of that situation and focus on them. It’s really just making the best out of a bad situation, which is the ideal thing. It’s like the saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Just remember, you can’t make lemonade with just lemons, at least not good lemonade. So get some perspective (water) to dilute the immediate sour taste, and a sweet attitude (sugar), and make some lemonade. Because you can either make lemonade for everyone to partake in, or you can squeeze them other people’s eyes and make everyone have a bad day.