It’s not a fantasy

We
see it in the movies that we dream our lives will emulate and in the
coming of age stories that we read. The moment that parents release
the keys into their child’s open hands in the most frightful. I
didn’t understand why. As teenagers, we are so wrapped up in the
fantasy of driving and the independence that follows that we forget
the dangers that are attached. The rush of adrenaline when the car
speeds up. The liberty of being able to go where ever whenever. Those
things block us from seeing a terrible reality. How is it that we
think that driving is no big deal when the death toll from wrecks is
comparable to the infamous World War 1.

Why
do so many of us treat driving as a treat rather than a
responsibility? The issue is the narrative that we are invincible.
“That happened to them, but it won’t happen to me,” they say.
I believed this too. Until my mother’s SUV was hit by a sedan. It
would be reasonable to think that the sedan would have taken more
damage and that the SUV would only need to have a door or too
replaced. But that is not what happened. The vehicle hit my mother’s
car, causing it to flip over completely. Her car was destroyed. I
remember when my father told me about the accident. It was on the way
home from swim practice, he had come to pick me up, which was strange
because he was supposed to be on a business trip. He hadn’t told me
before because he didn’t want me to worry. My heart dropped, the
blood rushed through my ears, and I went numb. I imagined my like
without her. How I would never see her face smiling and bright and
alive. How my mother wouldn’t see me graduate from high school. And
I couldn’t. My father, ever the prankster, decided to tell the that
my mother was safe only after he explained the details of the
accident. I think that that was the most relief I felt in my life.
However, the accident opened my eyes. It could have happened to us,
and I am not naive enough to believe that it won’t. My mother was
extremely fortunate that day. So many are not. The importance of
drivers ed can not be stressed enough. It is not only your life
on the line; it is someone’s father, someone’s daughter,
someone’s wife. Don’t end their story because you decided to be
careless with your own.