Reflective Essay

It was one of those things that could happen to anybody , but for me actually triggered a mental nuclear chain reaction about life , the universe , and everything . A personal cataclysm , an insignificant foible , and a weekend spent cursing my fate can certainly cause extreme shifts in perspective if they came together in a dramatic enough way like dropping a cosmic anvil on my head . On a humid Friday night in August , I drove home after another tiring night at Denny 's . Earlier that afternoon , the love of my life (so I thought ) decided

to end things with me and I was not in the best frame of mind . I 'm in love with Alexis , and we 've been seeing each other for the past few months . I can 't apologize enough for going behind your back like this . Damn right he can 't . We 've been going strong for three years and I thought we were going to get married after graduation .that was what was supposed to happen anyway . At the end of the day , I looked (and felt ) like I had been attacked by a pride of mountain lions and dumped in a vat full of boiling oil . I took off my torn and heavily stained shirt as soon as I had gotten out of work that night . The shirt had been white when I went in that day , now it was soiled with ketchup , soda , and different combinations of secret sauce ' My black 1992 Nissan Sentra felt like a second home to me , taking me down many peaceful pleasant roads my primary home could not . More has been said and done in that car than I dare mention . Even surrounded by the bountiful food of the Diner americanus , as a vegetarian , I couldn 't partake . I was ravenous . The light turned green , and I began accelerating . But my mind lay elsewhere drifting back to a massive supper complete with a banana split (Gabe falling in love ' with Alexis , a hot shower (how could I have been so blind to notice that something was going on ) and having a long talk with my four-month old puppy Isis about how lucky she was to be a dog in the United States of America . Then I would try to curl up with a book if I didn 't turn into a lump of sobbing quivering flesh first . My mounting impatience caused me to forget about the outrageously low 35 mph speed limit . I continued accelerating 30 , 40 and soon a little over 50 mph . I looked in my rearview mirror and noted that no one was following me closely . Usually someone else was even more anxious to get home than I and thus would follow me closely or pass me , but not tonight . A second later , I saw movement in my rearview mirror . I glanced up only to see a car pull out very fast behind me with a light bar on the top that certainly belonged to a police...