Life Changing Mistake

Most people you know have gone trough some sort of drivers ed , In america drivers ed is considered vary important, which quite frankly it is. I do not think many of you have lived in a third world country before , but i have , and i frequently visit it too. It is notable to say that people in many other countries are not properly tought how to drive, how to follow road signs , or how to practice safe driving. You see i have sen first hand what the lack of drivers ed education can do to society, it really is not a pretty sight. People there drive because it is a necessity andnot because they know how. It is very common for people to drive abrutbly , run over pedestrians and cause horrible collisions. In fact actually saw one of these horrible accidents happen right in front of my eyes, One afternoon i was visiting my grandma back in my hometown in mexico and while we were driving to her house he saw a small, old , red car speed by and hit a guy that was crossing the street in his motorcyc, it tuly was a traumatic thing to experience at such a young age , but imagine how much more traumaitic it was for the familyof that pooryoung man, imagine having to loose someone for thecareless mistakes of other. People cannot afford to learn how to drive properly and it cost the lives of so many people. However, here in the united states drivers ed is a required course you need to take. Knowing how to read road signs , what yielding is and the protocols of the road is very important even in our country. Accidents cause by automiobiles are one of the leading causes of death in this country , even with mandatory drivers ed. And i know what ypou are thinking , how is tha possible , why is there so many accidenmts if everyone is supposed to learn, well theres people who do not think that learning about driving is not important, and sadly i was one of those students. Like ive said before in my home country unliscensed,unexperiencd driving is normalizedand because of this i grew up without seeing driving as a responsibility , thats why when it came to drivers ed , i paid little to no attention , I knew what the signals were and i knew how to properly follow most rules when it came to being on the road, but theres one specific rule of the road i never really thought was important , and that was yielding. I do remember hearing the word yielding but i was never particularly interested in what it meant and why it was important, however, i sadly realized why yielding is very important. One morning, a few months after i got my drivers to permit , i was on my way to school. I was driving the 2008 beetle my parents struggled to get me. In order to get to my school, i needed to make a left turn , and on the stop sign, i waited until the sign turned green , not until i had a protected left turn , like most responsible adults would. And i turned left , without looking at the cars coming toward me. Before i knew it i was sitting in a cloud of smoke, my ear swerve ringing and i had no clue what had just happened , I saw a lady in a nurse uniform run towards me and all i could say to her was sorry as she helped me out out of my wrecked car. That moment , my life was changed. i had to go to court , and altough there was no one hurt , i had to pay many fines trough community servicethe rest of my senior year of highschool i had to do community service in order to repay the damages i had done and i no longer had a car i could move around in. i also now have serious anxiety anytime i get in a car. “Is this person a careless driver just like me”,” is there other careless drivers on he road”,” what if i got in an accident that ended my life or the lives of those i love” are toughts that circulate my mind every single time i get inside a car , and i have ot live with that. However, that experience did end up benefiting me in the long run . It has enlightened me on the importance of paying attention in drivers education and the importance of always following the rules of the road. It made me a better driver that is for sure, but my best advice for someone who is barely learning how to drive, is to take drivers ed seriously , so that you do not have to learn it the hard way like me.