3B
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 / The Statement 

I

t’s Spring Break of my freshman year of college 
and my dad and I slip into the Ford Fusion in our 
apartment building’s parking lot. I had no intention 

of ever driving again after my accident, but my parents 
insisted.

Our building sits on a major road that cuts through the 

heart of our town. The turn out of the parking lot scares 
me, so I sit in the passenger seat and watch my dad drive 
us to a nearby residential area — a quiet neighborhood 
with tree-lined streets and cozy houses that sit close 
together. Calm down, I tell myself. It won’t happen again.

•••

When my doctor asked me what it felt like, I told her it 

was kind of like being naked — a thick blanket of security 
I didn’t even know was there had suddenly been ripped 
from my shoulders, leaving me in a hyper-cautious and 
vulnerable state. I fought back tears as I tried to explain, 
but she told me this was good, so I continued:

Each time I crossed the street, entered a moving vehi-

cle or heard balloons pop or glass bottles hit the ground, 
I felt all at once entirely exposed and defenseless. I 
would cringe, close my eyes, clench my fists and wait for 
the feeling to pass.

Not long after this feeling took hold, I began doubting 

my own common sense. I convinced myself that if I didn’t 
look both ways, three times each, before letting my feet 
leave the sidewalk, I would surely miss an oncoming car. 
If I didn’t close my eyes from the passenger seat as my 
friend made a left turn, my mind convinced my body it 
would happen all over again. 

The left window would shatter as the car turned over, 

and there I would be: hanging from my seatbelt, my tears 
dripping sideways onto the shirt of my friend who had 
been driving. My ears were stinging from the blast of the 
air bag and my torso was achingg from the pull of the 
seat-belt. People rushed into the intersection, tapped on 
the windshield and called 911, but I was screaming and 
no one on the outside could hear me. 

•••

I constantly remind myself that I’m among the lucki-

est people on Earth.

“The car did exactly what it was supposed to do; it took 

the impact,” the police officer told my parents, who were 
staring at the vehicle, tipped over on its side and com-
pressed like a thin sheet of paper.

The emergency room doctor assured me after several 

X-rays that my pain was simply bruising that would fade 
in time. Some gross black and blue marks, and sporadic 
stiff aches that made it difficult to crane my neck or fall 
asleep, and that was it: I really am one of the luckiest 
people on Earth.

But in some sense, both the sheriff and the ER doc-

tor, who each gracefully dealt with my family’s collective 
hysteria, were wrong. There was an impact that none of 
the latest safety features could absorb. There were bruis-
es that wouldn’t fade for months — maybe even years.

•••

It’s been almost two years since the accident, and I 

still find myself clenching my fists as I cross the street 
and letting out small gasps from the passenger’s seat in 
the middle of busy intersections. The most painful part 
is not the moment itself, but the memory: When crossing 
the street to meet friends for coffee or in the car on the 
way home from a movie, the feeling comes back to me 
unexpectedly.

The memory hurts, but I’ve noticed it’s gradually 

faded. With help, I’ve realized the most important part 
of the healing process is to let myself be upset — to let 
myself remember the accident without crying over the 
fact that I’ll never be able to fully forget about it. In time, 
I tell myself, it won’t hurt as much.

Zooming In: Invisible Bruises

B Y L A R A M O E H L M A N

“Close, but no cigar! A boy’s best friend is his 
mother. Ah, but she’s a witch. What else would you 
call the mother of a winged demon? And do you 
know what happens to witches? Death. Death by 
fire!”

— LEX LUTHOR, played by Jesse Eisenberg, to SUPERMAN, on the impending 
fate of his mother.

on the record: actual quotes from ‘batman v superman: dawn of justice’

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human 
race, and if we believe there is even a one percent 
chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an 
absolute certainty.”

—BATMAN, played by Ben Affleck, about the all-powerful SUPERMAN and the 
possibility that he may, in fact, be evil. 

“Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their 
monument, be anything they need you to be...or be 
none of it. You don’t owe this world a thing. You 
never did.

—MARTHA KENT, played by Diane Lane, on SUPERMAN’S ability to do what 
he wants.

ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA

