Define: Snow Day

When I got up to brush the snow off of my car this morning, there was a lot of it. But school wasn't cancelled in Chelsea, and I saw someone's Facebook status that said the back roads weren't that good, but the highway was fine.

It seemed that some of the roads I took to get to I-94 hadn't even been plowed, but they weren't horrible, and when I got on 94, I could see all the pavement in both lanes. It looked like everybody was doing alright, so I slowly accelerated to 50-55.

I'm not sure if I turned the wheel a little bit, or braked a little (I don't think I did either of those things), but the car started sliding, and all the things I tried to do to fix it only made it worse. I started to slide off of the road sideways, then back into the other lane, and I'm not gonna lie, I freaked out. That was the first time I have ever not felt in control of the car while I've been driving.

I hadn't even made it to the first exit before that happened, and after I got straightened out, I was having trouble accelerating, the engine was just revving (black ice, I guess? I'm not sure if the problem was the road or my car.). I pulled off on the first exit and took back roads back home (really slowly, probably much to the agitation of the people behind me).

Now it makes sense that my parents were worried when it was snowy and we were out driving. I have to say, I always thought they were overreacting a little. I've never had any problems like that, and I think I'm a pretty good driver (no accidents, no tickets, etc.). But that was a really frightening experience, and it didn't have anything to do with me being unsafe or taking risks, it just happened. I'm glad that there weren't any cars near mine when it happened, and I'm really glad I was able to make it back home safely.