It’s not worth a life

“Driving is a job” are the words I hear from my mom all the time when accidents occur on the road. You have to look out for everyone else as well as yourself. After seventeen long years of watching my parents drive, it was finally my turn. It has become common to say “it’s only one video” , “one selfie” , one time, then we repeat it over and over again. Perhaps because nothing “bad” occurred the first time and “maybe” the second time won’t hurt, plus we’ve seen family do it all the time. We (students) watch our parents and people around us do it all the time knowing it’s wrong. It is so easy to begin to disregard or forget the rules and lessons taught in driving school.These simple deadly distractions become normalized and we have become desensitized to the chances we have in life and the consequences because of selfish actions that could have waited.

I am guilty of some of these distracted driving habits such as: checking my phone to change a song or setting my driving log timer on my phone because I forgot to do it before I pulled off, and trying to multitask in the midst of driving. These are simple things, I know I should not take part in, yet it’s a momentary necessity that becomes more valuable than my life at times.

Stopping these dangerous distractions begin with noticing and saying to myself, “It can always be you”. Now the second step to stopping the habits are actual actions; I plan to hold myself accountable and tell others in the vehicle to hold me accountable as well. It is one thing to let yourself down, but to let other individuals down, adds pressure. After creating an accountability team, I plan to take extra steps to keep my phone far from easy reach to avoid using it while I drive. If I want to change the music, I will ask someone in the car to change it for me or use the driving wheel radio settings to keep my hands on the wheel. When it comes to setting my timer, I can ask the passenger to set it for me or wait until I get to a red light instead.

Patience is key and constantly reminding myself that other tasks are not more important than the life behind the wheel and lives in the vehicle. Everything else can wait because if it was that important to me and deserved my undivided attention I would pull over to do so. Is driving a job? Yes, and I vow to do everything in power to excel in the skill of keeping my family, myself and others alive because if I don’t look to change my actions then who will? I challenge myself and everyone else to wait and value others and ourselves more than momentary necessities.