Practice Makes Perfect

Just about three years ago, I was finally able to take the test for my driver’s permit. I took my time while taking the test to be totally sure that I would pass. I was so excited when I passed that test and received my permit. The first thing that I wanted to do is to drive home. That one trip home made me love driving. I wanted to drive every time that I got in the car. Throughout the next year, I spent my time in the car driving to school, on the highway, and I had even found myself in what seemed like a never ending line for a drive through Christmas light show. While I had my permit, it was my parents’ job to teach me everything that there is to know about driving: what all of the buttons do, common courtesy while driving, how to fit through a drive through, parallel parking, and much, much more. They did a fantastic job too. After having gone through these teachings, I consider myself to be a pretty good driver, especially for my age group.

Before I knew it, it was finally time for me to get my license. I was stressed during the entire drivers test. Even though I knew exactly what I was doing, I was super nervous. After the test, my instructor gave me my score, and I had passed! I was so happy that I was finally able to drive wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Even though I was thrilled to have my driver’s license, I knew that this was going to bring some extra responsibilities onto myself. I did a good job avoiding any major incidents on the road for a couple of years, but it only takes one drive for that streak to end.

On December 27, 2022 at about 4:30 PM I got into a car crash that totaled both my car and also the car that I crashed into. I’ll admit, it was my fault, and due to ignorance. I had been following too closely to the car in front of me on the highway and was not ready for them to stop so suddenly as they did. I was not able to hit the brakes in time. Before I knew it all of the airbags were deployed and the entire front of my car had collapsed. Very luckily, nobody was hurt and the worst injury I had endured was a bruised fingernail. To this day, every time that I get behind the wheel the first thing I think about is saftey. This and all of the other car accidents that occur show the importance of being safe on the road.

Although my parents taught me very well, I had the least experience driving on the highway. I believe that when you are learning to drive with an instructor or with parents, a student will always learn the most when they make a mistake. I know that whenever I made a little mistake or was doing something wrong while driving, my parents always pointed it out. This wasn’t them making fun of me, it was just them making sure that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again for my safety. However, I was only on the highway with my parents a few times. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to get on and off of it, but since I didn’t get much practice with my parents, there were definitely some areas of improvement that I was never able to identify and fix. I think that it is important to practice as many aspects of driving as possible, even if someone thinks that they are really good at it, they can always improve.

It is very important to reduce the amount of mistakes made while driving because it’s not always about the state of your car after an accident or the damages, but the people inside of them. The number of deaths each year for car crashes is terrifying and it is very important that we try to reduce that number as much as possible. One way that this can be done is by making sure that drivers have practiced driving in different places, time of day, and weather lots and lots of times so that they are comfortable driving in any situation that is given to them. Another thing that is important when teaching people the rules of the road is what to do in each situation at hand. Even if the situation is extremely improbable, everyone should know what to do. I believe that everyone should be tested throughout driver’s education so that we can be sure that kids are actually learning and paying attention. This will ensure that there would be less inexperienced drivers on the road. Not only would they possibly be able to fix the situation themselves, but they could also prevent the possibility of crashing into another car or injuring someone at the expense of an inexperienced driver. Both more practice behind the wheel and making sure that kids are actually remembering and learning what they learn in driver’s education will make a great impact on not only the amount of accidents that occur but also the amount of lives that could be saved.