Ride or Die

When I entered middle school the social media world took flight, with that many phrases got used as slang within the school community. One I will never forget is the phrase “Ride or Die”, as kids we had no access to cars like the high schoolers did, but that never stopped us from using the slang that they did. What I didn’t know as that once we became older the meaning became so much more significant than some slang that the 13-year-olds threw around in the courtyard.

I was twelve when I got my first impromptu driving lesson. My father had pulled the beat up 2000 blue ford F-150 to the side of the road just three minutes away from our home. He told me to take us home, my older sister climbed to the back seat and my little sister was scared out of her mind. My father taught me the brakes and the gas and told me the way home. It was scary to say the least, and I cried after the ordeal in my room. My father saw me crying and said to me “I know it was scary, but this is something your going to have to learn and I want to be the one to teach it to you.” And teach he did, my father was a former driving instructor and before the age of fifteen I was passing driving tests like it was just another task. I believe that the early education of driving that was introduced to me by my father was a key steppingstone into my driving today. As of now I have never been pulled over and have never gotten into an accident, which is an accomplishment I am proud of. The moral of this memory I share, is that deaths on the road are caused to negligence by drivers, and that early education is the key to keeping the roads safe. By informing youth that there are lives at stake every time they get behind the wheel, it creates a fear factor which is beneficial to the safety of our roadways.

I was 17 when I got my first boyfriend, he was nice and had known him for many years prior to us dating. On our first date he picked me up and we went to view one of the attractions that our town holds during the Christmas season. One thing I took notice of was the fact that he was not good at parking. This should have raised a flag in my mind immediately, through the first 3 months of dating I witnessed firsthand that he was a reckless driver. From having me hold the wheel while he looked for his phone that fell between the seats to going 90 MPH with my sister in the back seat. It wasn’t safe and I knew it. However, I was enamored with him, until the night he was dropping me off at home it was late and we knew it. With a swerve here and there he dropped me off at home. I kissed him goodbye and woke up to a call the next morning, he had been in a crash. He totaled his car, he was alright, but it made me think about how I could have been in there. He had crashed into a telephone pole just minutes away from his house. I broke up with him the next week. Foolish me I took him back, I had still loved him after all, and it was nice. We had gone on a couple more dates than I get a call from him midday. He’s going to jail; reckless driving was the charge, and I couldn’t believe it. We broke up again and it has been like that from over 4 months now. Last, I have heard has had another car wreck and once again got out unscathed, which is good in hindsight, but worries me for the future of our youth. He had told me into our first three months of dating that I was his ride or die that I was the only thing keeping him sane, but what is the worth of my life to someone’s sanity.

Steps we as a community could take to secure the safety of our roads, is to suspend the license of drivers who engage in multiple vehicle related offences. I’m sure that the story I have shared resonates with most of the youth of today, and I believe that repeat offenders should retake drivers education. It is crucial to keep families on the road safe and all that could be undone within a spilt second. And it is up to us the drivers to ensure that we act responsibly behind the wheel to keep others safe.

Overall, the driving situation is only going to worsen with the overpopulation that comes with the aging of growing cities. Driving is a privilege not a right and is bestowed upon those who receive the proper qualifications to handle machinery that could possibly take lives as well as aid them in life. A thin yellow line is the only barricade that keeps us safe on the roads, it is up to us, the drivers, to execute the proper mechanics and enforce the proper road rules that will continue to allow us safe transportation.