The circumstances in which we made signs for the climate strike march in Bristol on Friday 28th February were less than ideal. A group of people from drama school, from all different courses, have formed a netball team. We play every Thursday and though I don’t know any of them very well, we are all becoming quite good friends. Today was a Thursday and we were on our way to play. We had barely left school when a reckless driver drove into the side of the car we were in. Luckily no one was seriously injured, though we’re all a bit battered and bruised.
I’m not writing this for sympathy or to be dramatic or anything like that. I am mostly just writing because it’s distracting me whilst I wait for my flatmates to get home. I just want to get it all out of my head and writing makes me feel better. It has been a very surreal evening.
When it happened everything sort of went in slow motion. I hadn’t clocked at all what was about to happen until the car had completely stopped and there was smoke all around us from the airbags. I was sitting in the back so I saw everything and if I close my eyes I can see it very vividly. There was a moment or two whilst we all took in what was happening but the fight or flight instinct kicked in pretty immediately. Someone shouted to get out of the car then the next thing I knew we were sitting on the grass, outside Bristol zoo, by the side of the road.
I can remember not being able to open the door on my side, it felt like a million things were going through my head. I thought I probably shouldn’t get out my side because that was the side that got hit and there was traffic happening. I also thought in the moment that I had forgotten how to open a car door. I slid over, grabbed my bag, and got out the other side. Only once I had sat down did I realise that my glasses had flown off in the collision.
There was a lady who had witnessed the crash and who happened to be a paramedic who stopped her car and came over to make sure no one was hurt. She was wonderful. We let the other half of the team know what had happened and they came to find us. Also a friend from school just happened to be walking past, on his way home, who stopped and sat with us. Without him I would have had a full blown panic attack and it was also him who found my glasses after looking several times in the car. The police also showed up and they were wonderful. At this point no one really knew what was going to happen next.
This is when one of the acting tutors shows up. She was first of all confused because nine students were sat at the side of the road with the police there and two beat up cars but she suggested we go back to school, sit in the staff room on comfy sofas and have a cup of tea so that is what we did. We were sitting around still not really knowing what to do with ourselves, those of us in the crash were quite shaken up and everyone else was trying to help in anyway they could, I received many hugs that evening.
There was a low point that occured when I went to the toilet so I could check my legs for bleeding and bruises in the mirror. I’d noticed a few spots of blood coming through my leggings just below my left hip. So there I was, leggings round my ankles, looking at myself in the mirror and I just started to cry. I pulled myself together and went back to sit with everyone. Then someone was joking about how at the climate strike tomorrow we should have a sign that says, ‘we were in a car crash that wasn’t our fault, cars are bad, get rid and save the planet’ which led to us actually making signs.
I’m not going to claim any major epiphanes or anything like that but this car crash has made me even more aware that life is precious and we should be doing all we can for our future. The togetherness that was borne of something potentially tragical morphed into a collective spirit for change. We will all be attending the climate strike tomorrow in the centre of Bristol and after this evening we are prepped and ready, signs and all. We will be looking out for each other, to make sure no one is concussed and fighting together for a brighter future. I made a sign with two slogans, of which I am proud. ‘Go green or no home’ says one side while the other suggests ‘when life gives you a planet, look after it’.
Once I was alone in my house I broke down. I had somehow held it together up until that point. I just started to cry and I couldn’t stop. Mostly it was the shock of this evening catching up with me but partly it was environmental dread, of which I have a lot. We need to stand together for what we believe in and I hope tomorrow’s strike for the climate will show that. I hope changes are being made to make this precious life we have better.
Mostly I have faith in humanity because of how everyone involved in this evening’s accident behaved. I can’t help but draw a parallel with the climate emergency. I hope that everyone is okay.
lilymaybaron 