Do you find yourself constantly getting frustrated with other drivers, easily annoyed by any car on the road or any kind of deterrence while driving? You may have a case of road rage.

Do not get me wrong, I tend to be hot-tempered on the road. However, today I have found a new perspective. We really do not know who we are honking at, we don’t know who we just flipped off or gave a dirty look.

I happen to be a person who people honk at, and normally it is my fault because I did something dumb. I will always be left in my car waving a hand, trying to signal some kind of apology. This normally does not bother me.

Today, I was crossing the street and was a little slower than usual and my boyfriend was right next to me. The crosswalk sign turned red as we were still in the intersection and I started to try to hurry to get to the sidewalk — I was about 4 steps away. As I reached the sidewalk fairly quickly, a man in a white car trying to make a right turn decides to honk at me and flip me off. Little did he know I am currently recovering from surgery and cannot walk very well or very quickly, let alone run across a crosswalk.

I was so annoyed at this old man that had the audacity to honk at a girl hobbling across the street. I just kept thinking how rude! It is not only rude, but I am already discouraged that I am not walking as fast or normal as I would like to.

By this experience I have had, I have decided to abstain from using my horn as much. Unless I am about to get into an accident, trying to get a friend’s attention, or trying to warn someone about to get into an accident, I will not use my horn. This could be extremely challenging because I get frustrated on the road a lot. I am sure a lot of other people get very angry on the road, but if this is you, I encourage you to take a deep breath and not overreact about drivers or pedestrians.

You will never know what the person in the car in front of you is going through, nor the person in the car next to you, or behind you. They could be driving like a maniac because they have someone in the hospital, or driving slow because they have a baby in the back, or a new driver that is scared to even be on the road.

I now challenge us to try to abstain from using the horns, with the exception of emergency situations. It won’t do anything for the person driving crazy, for the slow pedestrian or yourself.  Let us find patience on the road and more compassion for those that would normally frustrate us.