Life is all about learning. You can never stop gaining wisdom. One of the most important lessons that I’ve learned in my life time is not to mess with superstitions. A lot of people choose not to believe in them but I found out the hard way.

It was February 13th, 2009 and it just so happened that it fell on a Friday. So people were going crazy throughout the halls hoping they would get through the day without anything bad happening. One of my friends named Caty came up to me and asked what I was doing that night. I informed her that I was probably going to the movies and asked if she wanted to join. After she approved of the date, the rest of the school day went trouble-free. But after school that ended. The terror began.

“How was your day at school son?” my mother asked me. She always asked this question after school and I always replied with “it was ok.” Most of the time she’d continue questioning me but today was different. She said nothing after my remark.

“Has Friday the 13th brought any panic to your day?” I asked her.

“Davy, you have no idea. Everything that could go wrong today has. I just hope your father makes it home ok.” she replied.

I told her that I’m sure her day would get better and informed her of my plans for the night with Caty. She agreed to the tonight’s procedure and I left her in my kitchen.

On the way over to Caty’s, I swerved off the road nearly hitting a black cat. This is where it began. I knew the superstition beliefs of this but had never paid any attention to it before. I simply shook it off and continued on my way.

When I got to Caty’s, she was ready to go which was good because we were running a little late. When she got into the car, I began to fret about the night. I started thinking about all these statistics about why Friday the 13th is such a bad day. There are so many facts about it, it’s remarkable. But Caty knew something was up.


“Davy, is something wrong?”


“No, I’m just thinking.”

“Ok, you just seem quiet. Were going to have fun, I promise” Caty said as she smiled at me. I felt reassured of the night ahead of me. To bad that feeling didn’t last. We never even made it to the movies.

As she was saying that, I took my eyes off the road to look at her for a split second. When my eyes returned to the road, it was too late. That cat again returned to the road and when I tried to swerve to miss it but that was the wrong option.

The car flipped, the windows shattered, she screamed, and I knew that I had done this to us. For that moment in time that I was questioning the superstitions, they had become upset. Learning a lesson the hardest way possible is what this was later looked at as.

Caty didn’t even make it to the hospital. She was thrown through the window and died on impact. But like any other story, I survived with nothing but a few broken bones. Although I had to live with the fact I had killed her. That killed me.

I questioned something that people say not to. They say you’ll learn your lesson the hard way if you choose to disobey what they say. I did that, and by doing that I killed an innocent life. The hardest way to learn a lesson is doing the hard way, which in my case was taking a young woman’s life.

But what's the lesson?