Driving is not as simple as people say

The concept of driving is simple! Get behind the wheel, foot on the gas, and pay attention to the road and yet, thousands of accidents happen every year and ruin people's lives. 16,800 car crashes happen every day and makes driving a terrifying task for most people. Due to hazardous driving, millions of people experienced the effects of car crashes. Due to two terrible car accidents that happened in my town, I will never forget how it impacted me and the community around me. 

The first year of high school is a year meant to redefine yourself. Maintain good grades, make friends and live out your teenage years. The first semester of high school shifted how to view driving. I went from an excited fourteen-year-old girl imagining herself driving her friends to the mall to a girl who would feel sick looking at a steering wheel. I remember walking into school with nothing but silence filling the halls. Students cried in the hallway the more I would wander, the more I would force myself to hold back tears myself. I stepped into my biology classroom with tears pouring down my eyes. A senior in my high school passed away in a car accident the day before and the guilt was eating me up alive. I did not know the boy at all, the only interaction I had with him was when a lacrosse ball rolled onto the track and he ran to retrieve it in front of me. The day moved slowly and students were in and out of student services. I wouldn't move off the sofa in that room. I felt frozen in place hearing his name, seeing his friends sobbing and seeing his lacrosse jersey across for me. “He had such a bright future, he just committed to university!” I thought to myself. I felt like there was an empty pit in my heart whenever I would sit inside a car since then due to the amount of guilt I had for a child who lost their life too soon. Since the accident, the school recommended drivers ed to all rising juniors and seniors. People speak highly of the student who passed and vowed to never become a distracted driver. My emotions healed with time. 

This experience caused me to educate myself on driving by not only taking drivers ed but, getting behind the wheel with my father as he tested me about my surroundings. Feeling scared was not an excuse to stop driving when I drove with my dad, he was determined to teach me that I need to compose myself when I am driving to prevent the harm of myself and those around me.

Within over a year of practice, I felt prepared to take my road test! I booked it the same day as my best friends' birthday and was determined to pass the test with flying colors. The night before I couldn't sleep, I would have night terrors of be getting into an accident the day of the test. I stayed up the whole night paranoid of what could've happened tomorrow.   

I clenched on the stirring wheel shaking with my heart pounding out of my shirt. “ Your test will start once the car is in drive.” The older man said to me in a firm tone. It was nine AM in the morning and I was sweating like I finished a track race. With a heavy sigh I put the car in drive and began my road test. Every turn was a struggle the more I would remember the results will make or break my day. The instructor's directions stuck in my head like glue and I followed them like my life depended on it. The two-point turns, parallel parking and stop signs were no match for my knowledge on the road. I passed my road test on my first attempt and was certain I knew how to drive, until April 19th. 

My birthday was in a few days and my dad offered to take me to Queens to a famous vinyl store. I offered to drive knowing I have never driven out of my hometown because I thought it would be a simple drive. Getting onto the highway was a chaotic event. Cars rushed in front of me and signs flew by the faster I went. The more I would focus on the signs around me, the more I would slowly swerve into another lane. I was terrified to admit to my father I wanted to sit in the passenger seat so I kept going until we reached Queens. As I ran into traffic I would observe every car around me, waiting for them to move forward. Just as I was about to take my foot off the brake until a car swerved in front of me.If my dad was  not in the car with me, I would have continued straight causing an accident damaging both vehicles. I was shaken up the rest of the trip, “ I'm never doing this again!” I thought to myself while fighting back tears. I haven't driven for months after that incident until I found the confidence in myself to go behind the wheel again.