When my friends first started driving, I was excited for them to experience the freedom that came with it. I was ecstatic that they could be “grown” and make so many new memories, ones that I wasn’t able to make because my mom feared things that could happen with teenage drivers. I never understood the fuss, they were teenagers, but I thought all my friends were reasonable enough to be safe. That thought and hope was quickly shattered in my sophomore year when my next-door neighbor, with whom my family had become good friends with was rushed to the hospital due to a drunk teen driver. My friend’s sister had been driving him to a friend’s house when he was hit on the passenger side of the car, the car flipped, and all three teens involved were rushed to the hospital. I found out the next morning, and I was shocked; my friend and his sister had always been so cautious on the road. Thoughts spiraled in my brain, and all the what if questions resurfaced every chance they could. My friend ended up being medically induced into a coma to allow him to heal from all his injuries. I was scared. I knew he would be okay, I hoped he would be, but I knew in my gut something was wrong. My gut was right when 6 months later, they came home from the hospital, and he was in leg braces, and his family looked grim. His injuries included now leg disfunctions that would mean he could not walk properly and would be wheelchair bound the rest of his life, and extensive brain injuries, many of which gave him new mental and learning disabilities. It was hard to see my friend go from one person to a completely new one, all because a drunk teenager did not want to call an Uber, but it was harder on him. He couldn’t even recognize his old self in the mirror, and when we see each other in the halls, he will dab me up and say “hey girl, hey” while asking about my stepdad Justin and mentioning how we are old neighbors. I graduated this year, and I no longer live in that neighborhood, so I won’t be able to see him as often but I do think about him every time I am driving, though his situation has scared me off the road for two years I have now gained the courage to start driving again and I aim to be the safest driver on these roads. My friend’s experience has been able to address teen driving safety as a public issue in my community, and at my high school, the driving instructor made it a habit to inform students of their responsibility on and off the road. Teens must be educated in what they can do to avoid being the cause of an accident as well as avoiding one too and that starts at our schools, at home, and within our communities, we must make it known throughout multiple platforms that teens should be having serious conversations on the topics of car crashes, drunk driving, or distracted driving. Those are some of the many ways teens crash in the first place, peer pressure to drink and then drive home, not having enough experience on the road, being on one’s phone to either skip a song or check the time, and even having road rage and attempting to be petty on the road are all various things that can harm our teen drivers. We can help our teens overcome these obstacles by teaching them starting young that being petty on the road wither its honking or tailgating can lead to serious issues and we should attempt to remain calm under rage, we can stop them from falling to peer pressure by telling them that it is not uncool to say no, it’s more cool to save your life, and adults can allow teens to gain experience with them in the car (preferably without the helicopter mode on). The only way teens can stay safe while driving is by having a strong, calm, and collected support system that lets them feel as if they have the freedom while ensuring they know the correct safety driving tips to make them get home safe. Adults in the teens life’s don’t have to be the only people providing them with safety information either, schools can hold assemblies or start a safe driving week at their schools to promote it as well as making post on the schools social media to get incentives for safe driving and communities can post on their neighborhood watches or social media accounts to have interactive things that teens can relate too and endorse them to consider aspects of driving they could’ve ignored before.. Teen driving safety is more than just letting teens know the danger, for me it’s about saving lives and honoring those who have been taken or affected by teen driving. A driver's license is more than freedom, it’s a duty to everyone around you that states you promise to uphold the roads and make sure everyone in your car or the car next to you can reach their destination safety, but also when you’re driving safe you are honoring those who can no longer do what you are doing, even if you don’t notice it others appreciated it.