Yesterday, I was driving down Barrett Parkway on my way to Target to return a few items when all of a sudden, traffic stopped. I was the second car behind all the activity, so when I drove around a wrecked car in the middle of the road, I looked to my right. A minivan had careened off the road and down into a 30-foot ravine, near I-575, landing on its driver's side. I had to stop.
As I watched the driver of the car in the middle of the road get out of his car and disappear down the hill to see if the driver in the van was okay, I, and several other people did the same thing.
It was raining and slick, but in 45 seconds there were about 7 of us down there with the van and the driver, who was trapped, in shock...and scared. She kept closing her eyes. I was afraid she'd go unconscious.
We spoke to her through her closed windows.
"Stay awake"
"Put the car in park!" Car wouldn't go into park.
"Take the key out" She was too much in shock to figure out how to do that.
"Are you okay?" She motioned that she hit her head.
"Are you alone or is there someone else in the van?" She was alone.
"Can you unlock any doors?" No. She was trapped and we couldn't get her out, despite someone climbing on to the top of the van to try to open the passenger doors, which were facing the sky.
The men were trying to upright the van, but it looked like it wouldn't stay upright because it was on a hill. The van was teetering, looking like it would go over on the top any minute, so it was decided that the guys would, together, hold the van up so it didn't go over until help arrived.
I, and another woman, positioned ourselves in front of the van where the driver could see us through the front windshield and we kept speaking to her, reassuring her that she'd be okay. We heard the sirens, we told her. Help was coming. She nodded. She began to tremble from shock. Don't forget to take deep breaths, I told her in an effort to help her with her body's reaction to shock and to put her mind on breathing and not on the fact that she was nearly upside down in a ravine of water and trapped inside her flipped car. I'm sure that's not exactly where she planned to end up when she was driving around running errands yesterday.
After help arrived, I smiled at her and made my way back up the hill to watch the rescue from a 20 foot distance. I was joined by another man who had also stopped to help. He asked me if I saw what happened. I said no, but was one of the first ones down to her. I also mentioned that I felt very helpless to do anything, other than talk to her. I'm not strong enough to right the van or force a door open and even if I could, I couldn't pull her out. He said something very significant to me. Something that I had lost sight of.
"It's not always your strength that helps, sometimes it's your heart."
In some small way, maybe I did help. Maybe having me and the other woman in front of the van to talk to and focus on helped that trapped driver take her mind off what she had just been through. Maybe it was enough to keep her awake and going until help arrived.
It made me think of the beginning of each semester with students. Particularly my advanced students. I don't expect perfection right away, just effort. You have 4 packages to do before the semester is over, among other projects, and I just want to see improvement. I want to see that you are trying and that you are putting your heart into each project. Your strengths will come later as you learn. I know that. Sometimes it's just your heart, not your strengths that are important.
So, do your best. Put your heart into each project and know that your skills will get stronger every day, as long as you concentrate on improving. Small, concentrated baby steps.
Respond to my blog by talking about how it feels to not be perfect when you try something the first time. How you deal with the fact that there are other people who are better at things than you are while you are learning? How do you improve yourself? How do you get better at things? How do you make yourself feel better while you're learning? What keeps you going when you get discouraged? Do you remember learning to ride a bike when you were a kid and you couldn't ride more than a couple of feet before you tipped over? What did it feel like when you finally "got it" and rode? You weren't perfect. You were wobbly, but your body learned what it felt like to keep a bike upright and moving forward. How did you get better at riding your bike? Did you eventually learn tricks on your bike? Talk about your experiences at learning something new and then getting really good at it.
