An Education in Ourselves

An
Education in Ourselves

Six
years ago my life changed in a way that I thought only happened in
movies. My cousin at nineteen years young got off work late one
night and started to drive a 3 hour drive to see his girlfriend for
the weekend. He fell asleep at the wheel of his truck. The only
reason he was found, barely alive, was that a farmer went to begin
his day at 4am only to find he had no power. Noah had taken out the
electricity pole for the farmers’ barn. After coding 3 separate
times, and months in rehab, he is learning to live a life on his own.
Noah will always need some assistance due to the severe head injuries
he sustained. How could this have been avoided? Could it have?

Today’s
vehicles are getting safer by the year, but we still have to educate
new drivers as much as before. We might need to think of educating
them more than prior years. As vehicles get equipped with lane
departure, blind spot, and collision avoidance systems; we tend to
get lazy in our driving, relying on those “safety” systems. We
need to educate new drivers more in the areas of not just defensive
and distracted driving, but knowing ourselves as well. If we know
ourselves better, really knowing, we should be more in tune to
knowing if we are in a true state to drive. I know I am guilty of
getting in the car and driving upset or furious. This hinders my
driving ability, even if I am not thinking about it.

Four
years ago, a good friend of mine was almost killed by a drunk driver.
I remember my mom telling me she might not make it through the next
day. It took me three times of trying to go up to the hospital to
have the courage to go in and see her. Victoria’s life changed
forever that day. She was a beautiful, well-spoken Christian. Today
she is in a help center as she cannot do daily tasks by herself.

If
we all just took a mandated course on understanding ourselves better
it might make a large impact on the number of deaths on US highways
each year. Maybe Noah would have realized he was too tired to make
that drive at night; maybe the man that hit Victoria and her dad
would have thought twice and called for an Uber. We really need to
take the time to breathe and know our mental status before we turn
the key in that car we get in.