Life Beyond High School

How exciting! I’m going to drive everywhere! How hard can it be? That’s what I thought before I got my license. How wrong I was. When I was a new driver I was so afraid, everyone around me drove fast and beeped at me for driving the speed limit or making a full stop at a stop sign. Once someone beeped at me while I was waiting to turn right at a red light. He couldn’t see the car coming. I wanted to drive fast to make him happy, but my mom made me calm down and made me realize that it didn’t matter what other people thought. When I was learning she let me pull over any time I wanted so I didn’t become stressed and make a mistake. Why didn’t any drivers actually follow the rules I was being taught? Ten miles over the speed limit is normal on the thruway, but if you drive one mile over the speed limit on your drivers test you will fail. Do as I say, but not as I do? I had to find a way to follow the rules, but also not pay attention to everyone flying by me. I thought I’d never get comfortable. Taking Driver Education was such a big help. It taught me things that my parents have forgotten. It also taught me that getting there alive was more important than what people thought of me.

I am the only one in my friend group that took Drivers Education and they have both been pulled over within a year of getting their licenses. This scared them so much that now they make sure to follow all the rules. When we are driving together we help each other out. We all look both ways to make sure it’s clear, we check blind spots, we help with turns coming up and watching for pedestrians. There are so many distractions, I’m still afraid to drive in the city.

My friends also know that they can call me for a ride if they don’t feel like they should be driving. This is probably the most important thing for us to know. Parents need to make sure we know it’s better to call them, or an Uber, if we need to and we won’t get in trouble. We need to know that asking for a ride is more important than getting in trouble for a bad decision. Social media is the best way. Everyone is on social media. We need to be comfortable enough to ask our parents and the only way to make us ok with it is if parents make sure we know.

Three teens were just killed in the next town over for driving drunk and the driver misjudged a corner. These teens won’t get the opportunity to go to college together. Once I saw two girls I didn’t know leave a party, I thought someone picked them up, but down the road I saw that they had been pulled over and the girl driving shouldn’t have been. I remember feeling relieved that she was pulled over, what if she drove a corner too fast or didn’t see a red light. They both could have been killed like the teenagers in the next town or hurt someone else who is just driving home from work. I see stories about people being paralyzed.

When I got my license, my parents told me over and over to always call them if I don’t feel like I should be driving or if I’ve had any alcohol at all. I know my mom will always come get me, even if she’s mad at me. She has told me the same story many times. When she was in college, about two hours from her home town, her boyfriend at the time drove to visit her. He left too late and didn’t realize how tired he was. He fell asleep at the wheel and hit the back of a tractor trailer. They estimated he was going 90 miles an hour. The tractor trailer driver said everything fell off his shelves when they hit him. Her boyfriend was sore, but no major damage. The passenger, who had woken up just before impact, lost many teeth and had glass embedded in his face. My mom said he was screaming as they tried to wash the glass out of his face. She always reminds us of this story whenever we are driving late at night. I will never drive drunk and I’ll never let my friends drive drunk or tired. The risk is too high. I want to go to college with them, I want to be able to text them when I’m happy or sad. I want to stay friends with them and be a bridesmaid or a bride. I will always convince them to get an Uber so we can live to achieve our dreams.