The open road is an ode that has been etched in its pavement, some of its stanzas embracing the buoyancy of radiant smiles and loud music, while others whisper sorrows of crumpled steel, ear-piercing silence, and lives that were lost all too soon. Each turn, each mile is a reminder of life’s fragility, and how easily joy can tip into the lines of despair.
This is why driver education plays a pivotal role, in providing a path to safety, constantly reminding us of the constant dangers of the road in which we drive. It teaches us to see beyond the tinted window pane, to expect the unexpected, and that there are lives just as precious that drive beside us. It teaches you to react quickly, to always be on guard, and to be ready to slam those brakes or swerve that car to protect others, to protect yourself. Yet often such important education is forgotten or reduced to nothing more than baseless rules that are used to prevent the freedom that comes from driving on the road.
On a societal note, we must establish stricter laws, build reasonable infrastructure, and spread constant awareness of the dangers of driving. But for true change, we must look within ourselves as an individual, and realize how fleeting life is, how one glance at that phone or too many drinks of that beer can ruin everything.
My m is everything to me, she’s the most precious person in my life and I could never imagine my life without her. Every Tuesday she woke up at seven o’clock in the morning to drop me off at school which I’m so thankful for because there is never really any parking on campus. I begged to bring my dogs that day but my mom sternly said no as she didn't want their hair all over the seats. After a bit of mopping, I finally was dropped off at school and I immediately went to the library to study for my biology exam that was in two hours. For some reason, I had a weird feeling in my stomach that something bad was going to happen, and to make that bad feeling even worse happened to get a ping from my school’s Reddit page saying there was a car crash in the parking lot. A strike of worry ran through my body and I tensed and shakily grabbed my phone, my knuckles paling at the grip. I opened my phone to Life360, and my face eased as I found that she was near our neighborhood and nowhere near my school anymore so I breathed out a sigh of relief and chuckled about my silly paranoia and simply put my phone on to not disturb so I continued with my studying. After taking my dreadful midterm, my momma came to pick me up yet this time it wasn’t in Sally ( her car) it was in my grandmother‘s car. I thought that maybe she just dropped off her car at the shop as she mentioned prior that it needed some work so I hopped in the car not thinking much of anything excitedly planning to tell my mother about my day. But when I looked up I saw my momma's face scrunched into a frown, her eyes were bloodshot and tired as if she had been crying seeing her face my heart quickly sank and I was praying she wasn’t going to say what she thought she was. Yet with a shaky breath, she told me how a lady turned too far out and slammed into her car. I desperately tried to keep it together for the story, wanting to stay strong from my mom, but I ended up breaking down in tears. I know she was perfectly fine in the physical sense. The thought of losing my mother ruined me, I couldn’t breathe my heart felt like it could fly out at any moment. To make matters worse I felt even worse because I could have warned her, I felt that something was gonna happen, but brushed it off as me being paranoid, and since my life360 didn’t alert me of a crash thought everything was fine. I also couldn’t help but think about what would happen if my mom said yes to bringing our dogs in the car. They surely would have been hurt, or even worse. I am so grateful that she was protected but at the same time, it made me wake up to how quickly our lives could have changed.
Since that day, I vowed to honor life and its sacredness, to drive with intention and awareness. I promised myself to become a safe, focused driver and try to be as ready as humanly possible for any mistake. I also constantly remind those around me to buckle up as tightly as possible, always be on the defensive, and have your location on at all times.
I’m so grateful my mom is safe, but plenty of others cannot say the same. So I also encourage you to always say I love you no matter how bad an argument expresses to your loved ones how much you love them because you never know when their day is their last. Much like life the road is a shared journey each turn and each stop has the power to decide between the junction of life and death and drivers' education and safety measures are the guide to the right path. So I encourage you to take that driver's education class, be aware, pay attention, stop and think, and make smart choices. Don’t drink and drive, don’t text while driving, wear your seatbelt as tight as possible, move quickly, and lecture your loved ones about driving cautiously. The road of life is precious and it only takes a second to lose it so make conscious and cautious decisions.