Lessons from my mom ,Lessons for my road

Driving gives you freedom and independence. It gives you the ability to do things you once had to rely on your parents for for example, getting you to work getting you to school or even go into the grocery store and that’s where my story begins. For many people driving is for the fun event especially teenagers driving just represents the freedom to go hang out with their friends and go do stuff they normally wouldn’t do. However, with that freedom many people don’t understand that it comes with a lot of responsibilities that are sometimes not thought about. Driving isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. It’s about understanding that your choices or somebody else’s could affect the lives of everyone near you. How I feel about driving safely has changed my own experiences, especially through my minor accidents and my mom being involved in a car accident. Accidents made me realize that becoming a safe driver requires a lot of personal commitment to caring about others and paying attention to things going on around you.


In my opinion, the most important thing about driving is being safe because it’s not always just about you. It’s about everybody sharing the road around you. A responsible driver knows that they’re not only responsible for their own actions and their own safety but for their passengers and everybody else around them. A lot of people think that looking at your phone or speeding even running a stop sign when no one‘s there isn’t dangerous, but it is. It is easy to think that an accident cannot happen to you because you’re looking at your phone for three seconds or nobody was at the stop sign when you ran it but that’s not true at all. This is why accidents are caused. But this is the reason I believe safe driving starts by being aware of your surroundings and to expect the unexpected. Driving safely may cause you to arrive somewhere late but being late is better than having to know you hurt somebody when I think about being a young teenage driver I always think about my safety and the people around me. I always think about how my family would feel if they got a call saying I wasn’t here or I killed someone. 

My mom has played a huge role in teaching me why being a safe driver matters. My mom works for San Diego Gas and Electric and throughout her job. She has seen many horrible accidents that have lead to someone dying hearing about what she has to say in her showing me certain pictures of accidents aren’t just things that I see on television that I won’t see about anymore. These accidents happen to real people and affect their families. My mom has experienced how unpredictable driving can be. While my mom was walking into Albertson’s an older woman hit her with a vehicle she had early onset dementia, and shouldn’t have been driving and when she hit my mom ,my mom flew through the doors and landed in a watermelon case. My mom wasn’t doing anything wrong at the time. All she was doing is trying to go grocery shopping. That experience made me realize that drivers have a responsibility. This story shows that the driver wasn’t paying attention to a pedestrians or anything else around her especially in a busy area like Albertsons parking lot. When she hit my mom, she called it an accident, but it was due to her hitting the gas instead of the brake because she wasn’t paying attention. My mom’s experience has made driving really important and personal to my everyday life. Whenever I hear my mom say that her foot is hurting I think back to what happened to her. I am reminded years later that that happened to her. I am also reminded that there is a person in the other vehicle next to me and they deserve to make it home safe.

For my own personal experiences, I have experienced how frightening it can be with someone else’s driving can affect you. I have been hit two times on the freeway. I pray to God that neither accident was major and then it caused any damage but then again that doesn’t mean that those experiences weren’t scary in both situations. I was reminded how quickly something like this could happen. I remember all I could hear is an alarm in my car going off in me putting my hand over my sister, so nothing would happen to her. When I was simply sitting in traffic thinking about what I was gonna do that day even when you’re paying attention and doing everything you’re supposed to do that doesn’t mean the others around you are. Even though the damage was not severe being hit like that was one of the most scary experiences I have ever been through. It made me aware how to stay alert and leave enough space between me and the car behind me. It also helped me understand why defensive driving matters and why you should always be looking at all of your mirrors. I cannot control another person’s actions, but I can’t control my own. By doing that I know if someone is speeding up behind me and I start to hear that alarm I could move out the way these experiences have made me want to be an amazing driver be patient and considerate like I want people to do for me.

Finally, I believe becoming a safe driver is about much more than completing the test safe driving isn’t just about the lights and the signals in the sign but it’s to prepare you for more than just a test prepare you to make it safe back to your family every night prepare you to not be the reason someone’s mom or dad isn’t coming home. Safety has to be something that you want to have in your everyday life. You have to choose to put your phone away and slow your speed down. You have to be the one to choose to not drinking and drive not just for yourself before the person driving next to you, you have to choose patients even when someone’s going 20 mph on the freeway in front of you. Being educated about driving gives you way more than knowledge it gives you experience and determination. Safe driving needs to become a habit rather than something you’re only thinking about because you wanna pass or get a good grade. It needs to be something that everybody understands not just something people look at as a rule. Safe driving needs to be something that you do every day not just when you see a cop next to you. I also want to be confident enough to know that others around me will make safe choices.


Driving may give me freedom, but it gives me responsibility from my mom’s experiences and my own. My understanding of the road has changed a lot for the better. I know I cannot control every driver and what they’re going to do, but I will try my hardest to stay safe on the road follow the law and remain patient. I choose to care about safety because I wanna protect myself and others around me being safe is not about passing a test or complaining the course it is about making a decision every time you drive. Being a safe driver isn’t about getting there quickly.