From the Passenger Seat

I have been driving for less than a year. I am seventeen years old. I am a high school graduate, and I have been driving for less than a year. Many of my peers, by the time I had graduated, had been driving since sophomore or junior years. However, my journey to driving has been a different case. Unlike my peers, I put the task of learning how to drive off for a while. Without reasoning regarding laziness or procrastination, a dominant reason as to why I was so hesitant to begin driving was because of a car accident I experienced first hand. In summer 2021, me and my mother were hit from the side by who I have assumed to be a distracted driver. The woman blew through a red light where my mother had the right of way to turn considering the green light allowing the cars in our lane to go. The woman, however, did not stop. Instead she hit us. I remember seeing her airbags shoot out right before we spun off the road. Just like that, something I thought would never happen to me happened to me in mere seconds. I have never wanted to be any kind of statistic, so I put off driving out of fear that I would become a statistic of teenage deaths in traffic accidents or car crashes. 

It took me two years to even touch a wheel and another year until I actually got my permit. I had overcome that fear of driving through the growing understanding that I would always be at some sort of risk whenever I was driving. A car is a mechanism that is hundreds of pounds and can excel ninety miles per hour with acceleration. Driving is always a risk. Yet, when I began to aim to actually begin driving, my permit was put on suspension due to an epileptic seizure for six months. Just my luck. Six more months in the passenger seat. Considering my seizure caused me to be restricted from even touching a wheel for six months, that meant I had not driven since early 2024. At the time of the lifting of my health restriction, it was April 2025. I had not driven more than three times in a community park, and I had not done so in more than a year. Thus, my mother enrolled me in driving school. Not only did this cause a decreased amount of stress for her, but the course would allow me to learn from an individual who taught classes about driving as a profession. Through this class, I would really be able to gain a deeper understanding of the necessity for caution and safe driving. I remember specifically that there was a video the class had watched where it documented drivers who passed due to texting and driving’s last words. Most if not all of the phrases were only one or two words. One or two words sent through a phone caused someone’s life to end. Furthermore, we were exposed to statistics of deaths and injuries by car accidents annually. The information that was provided to me further promoted my refusal to be a statistic. I understand that one day I will pass away, but I do not want to be noted as another statistic by any means. In order to carry out this wish of mine, I aim to be an observant driving. 

Being an entirely safe driver is a quality of mine that I still aim to get better with. I, personally, have trouble with staying off my phone due to the fact that my car does not have a functional bluetooth radio. For context, my car is a 2007 Lincoln MKZ. The car I drive is older than me. My grandma drove it to visit me and my mother while we still lived in Ohio while I was an infant. It is one of my childhood cars. I grew up riding around in it to visit my grandma at work, to get picked up at school, and so many other staple childhood events and memories. However, I also really enjoy listening to my own music. I do not have enough patience, especially in my own car, to listen to advertisements over the radio or hear the channel host talk and talk about nothing of substance (at least to me). I could get my car fixed; however, that would cost money that I do not have interest in spending since it is not that dire a problem in my opinion. As a result, my phone quite literally acts as my speaker. Since there are no touch screen or bluetooth elements in my car, I have to directly skip the song through my home screen. If I want to rewind a song, I have to do so by hand. These little wants for customizable, personalized entertainment in my car have caused instances of distracted driving. I still try to remain observant, but my full attention is not on the road. It is then split between the buttons on my phone and the road I am driving on. As a result, the risks of me driving increase tremendously not only statistically but logically. 

As someone who is about to be freshly in college with new beginnings, my feelings about safe driving habits (even my own) have evolved to cater to those of safety. I want to be able to live to graduate college, to experience my first college football game, to perform at my first college halftime show as a part of the institution’s marching band. There are so many firsts that I want to experience, so I refuse to allow those opportunities to be replaced with last simply because I was being a reckless driver.