Here's a very honest confession: I didn't start driving until I was 22 years old. Not 16, like a normal teenager would be. I never even sneaked out and "borrowed" my mom's car for the night! However I did have my reasons at the time and to this day I stand by those reasons, while my family thought that I was an odd duck (or a black sheep?) as they couldn't wait to drive and did some sneaking going around. I'm pretty positive that my family wondered if I was biologically part of the family or if I belong in a mental institution.
My two main reasons:
1) My first "love" (another honest confession: my first 'love' and I were never a couple- by the time we started to talk, school was getting out for good and we were both to go to different high schools so our chance of being together never happened but boy oh boy, was I crazy about him!) died in a car accident in 1998. He had a car with a sunroof and when he maneuvered from another earlier accident, he lost control of his car. He wasn't wearing a seat belt and practically flew out of his sunroof while his car was tumbling around itself. He had two other girls with him- one girl also wasn't wearing a seat-belt and both of them died while the other girl wore hers and survived. Not a pretty death (then again, what death is pretty?). He was 17 years old. We hadn't been in touch for a few years and I heard about it from a friend who told me it was in the paper. Of course I went digging for the newspapers and found it. I still have the print out of the article in my high school scrapbook. Message: Always wear your seat-belt!
Note: In this blog, there's quite a few poems dedicated to him
2) When my family were at the age of learning to drive and such, they lived in small quiet communities. Me? Not so much! Just down the road is a very busy street. It's not like a simple town, no, it's practically a city! So many fast automobiles that it just terrified me. I live in an area that you would have to be on your toes and be alert at all times.
I remember explaining this to my Grandmother and I guess she finally understood it, especially after the experience of tense driving in another busy city where I lived for 2 years for college.
Last year I found out that my Mom's cousin also took a long time to get a driver's license herself at my age (22) but her reasoning was that she did NOT like to drive in the snow. She's terrified and even to this day she refuses to drive in snow. She'll drive in rain, sunshine, but not snow. At least it's nice for me to know that I was not alone in getting my driver's license in my 20s rather than 16.
Now for my pet peeves...
1) I would be minding my own business, concentrating on where I was going and all of the sudden from the corner of my eye I would see a car (truck or whatever) coming right at me on the side! Scary, right? Except, the car would be on it's turning lane on the other side in the opposite direction and about to make a turn- either to a driveway of some building or a U-turn. I HATE THAT!!!!!!! Why couldn't the driver just wait 2 more seconds before start to go??? It would certainly ease my heart to rest rather than jumping into my throat and causing me to panic in fear that I'll get hit.
2) Speaking of being in a turning lane...I would be on there, waiting for my turn to go across the street in my car and wait and wait and wait...until some stupid impatient ass honks! It's one of those times when I wish my car can talk or flash a sign to say a few things like:
-Don't YOU see cars coming?
-Excuse me, but I don't want to DIE because of you or have my beautiful car injured because of your impatient ass
-If you don't like it, then go around and let's see how YOU manage
-I'm not a daredevil or Evel Knievel so shut the *blank* up
I do swear that if I'm ever in an accident because of some asshole honked at me, then I will make that person pay for the damages as well as my hospital bill because it would be on them.
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