Sixteen. The time of your life, the time when you get their first taste of freedom and out on the big open road. Before getting behind the wheel of the car and tasting that freedom, a student must go through driver’s education. If your driver’s ed experience was anything like mine, then the idea of freedom and the big open road may have left behind a sour taste in your mouth.
Driver’s ed class was awful. My personal knowledge of cars came from SpongeBob boating school episodes and driving around in a parking lot once. The class was only for about a month or so, and we had a sweaty, angry woman standing at the front of the room making us watch videos of car crashes. While in the driver’s education course, I learned all about the dangers of texting and driving, drinking and driving, distracted driving, and learned that basically if you are behind the wheel of the car then you shouldn’t be doing anything but breathing and driving.
I felt like I was in the SpongeBob episode of “What Not to do at a Stop Light." I was learning all about what not to do behind the wheel of a car, but what was I supposed to be doing while I was driving? Just breathing? I guessed that was going to come later in the course when we were actually driving. Everyone that I had talked to made driving sound so easy, but those videos were starting to make me realize that driving a car was a huge responsibility and not just about being free.
Along with the classroom part of the course, we learned all about signs and lights and basic knowledge of the roads. I felt like I knew my stuff pretty well, how difficult are road signs anyway? I studied really hard for the test to make sure that I could get behind the wheel. I felt like I needed to prove that I wasn’t like those other distracted teens that my teacher looked so down upon. I thankfully did well on the test and was able to move onto the other parts of the course: driving.
Driving is scary. There is no doubt about it, being behind the wheel of a giant ton of metal and being the only person in control is terrifying, especially after you have viewed all of those car crash videos. I was scared and my driver’s education teacher didn’t make it any better. She wasn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy person. She wouldn’t let the windows go down more than a crack or have the radio turned up above five decibels.
My first exercise was to hit the gas petal and go as fast as a possibly could and then to slam on the breaks. Um, excuse me? I thought the whole point of driver’s education was NOT to get in a car accident! I didn’t like this exercise and was so scared of it that my driver’s education teacher failed me in the section. I felt like I was being set up to fail. All I could think about was those videos of vehicles being all smashed up. Next came the normal stuff of parking and managing to do the speed limit.
Like I said earlier, my knowledge about driving mostly came from SpongeBob, who is not the most reliable source. I started out by only using my big toe on the gas pedal and the brake pedal, just like in SpongeBob. I know, stupid right? Honestly, I didn’t know! The thought of my whole foot on the pedal was ridiculous to me but I figured that I should probably listen to my angry teacher yelling at me instead of a cartoon sponge. The whole time I was trying to operate this machine, the teacher was criticizing my every move! She only gave me criticisms and yelled, I couldn’t seem to get anything right and I was becoming frustrated with the whole thing. And it was only day one! If this was what freedom was supposed to feel like then I didn’t want it.
The rest of my driver’s education continued similarly. It was filled with fear, tears, and screaming from an overly sweaty woman in the passenger seat. I did not pass the driving part of the course the first time, I had to re-take it. Thankfully, I was given a different teacher who didn’t mind the radio being turned up above 5 decibels and who liked the windows being down. The second time around I came in with more confidence and my teacher was able to boost my self-esteem and my driving experience. I'm just happy that I have my driver's license and that I'm not a SpongeBob on the road.
