Straight To My Own Heart.

Ian Rogers

Steps for Safer
driving

5/20/20

Word Count: 495

Straight
to My Own Heart.

My
neon-green fishing lure glided over a white rolling wave, connected
to me by fifty yards of line. Over and under the water, skittering
over the surface, trying to tease out an unsuspecting fish, I
carefully followed the instruction of the seasoned angler next to me.
“Pull right, now turn it slow, around that rock, now straight
towards the boat.” His careful instructions served as a laser
guidance system for that lure. Through the direction of my mentor, I
moved with confidence, patience, and direction. Without the careful
steps of education, I would be blindly casting and retrieving,
without a fish to show for it. During 2008, car accidents killed
about nine teens aged 16-19 daily. To prevent fatal teenage
automobile accidents, teens need to receive confidence, patience, and
direction, which only comes from education.

While
practicing my right turns, I urged the wheel a bit too far and the
incoming vehicle honked at me. I panicked. My facade that I had built
and the skills I had acquired flew out the open window.
Unfortunately, many teens have a lack of confidence, like me. My
friend Clara drives her car, knuckles white, and teeth clenched
without the confidence it takes to relax and react. Nearly eighty
percent of crashes occur due to a lapse in reaction time. How could a
panicky teen like me, or a frozen icicle like Clara ever react
effectively? Hours spent honing skills in the company of an expert
produces confidence. For teens joining the rest of society on the
highway, it is imperative they receive a teacher who gives them
positive regard, instilling a deep sense of confidence allowing
students to relax and react.

Driver’s
education instills confidence, but repeated practice can also lead to
patience. While many people think of patience as an innate virtue,
which means you either have it or not, teens can easily learn
patience by repeating actions such as parallel parking ten times in a
row each day. Although most instructors can only meet once a week,
practice can fit anywhere into a teens busy schedule and practice
produces patience. Patience can decrease accidents, but teens with
patience become more courteous drivers, which effectively reduces
road raging.

Education
cultivates confidence and patience, but teens also need proper
direction to know exactly what to do. Imagine playing Monopoly,
but without knowing the prices of Baltic Avenue or Boardwalk. No one
would progress. In life, trying to survive on the highway without
understanding the rules can result in a loss of progress, but often
causes death. Although public policy can seem like the best way to
value confidence, patience, direction, legislation would never solve
anything unless teens truly apply it to their life. My words must
reach more people to raise awareness and create personal change not
legal change. On the boat that day, I finally caught a Yellowtail
tuna, but I could not have triumphed without taking confidence,
patience, and direction straight to my own heart.