Drive Safe!

Driving Advice

- stay a car length behind other cars at stop lights

- always use your blinker

- using a middle finger is not to be considered a valid driving "signal"

- always wear your seat belt

- don't drink and drive (and I don't mean because you will spill!)

- stay within the speed limit

Everyone has their own personal driving habits and ideas on what rules others should obey. And we all have something that someone else does that annoys us, when they drive.

There's those of us who are annoyed as we drive by the girl who is using the rear view mirror not to check her blind spot, but to check her mascara (as she puts it on!) I promise the mirror will still be there when you stop the car, darling. Or the guy who has decided that green only means go after he's finished his conference call. Don't get me started on the texter. How many times have you been behind someone who is swerving like they're drunk only to pass them and see them texting: wut r u up 2 2nite? to his friend. (Note: If you are close enough to read their text, you're probably not watching the road. Didn't your parents teach you better?)

The driving advice my mother gave me that sticks with me most is this: drive safe. Simply stated. "Drive safe!" She would yell from the front porch, as we pulled out. This stopped shortly after it started.

A fellow teammate and I were headed to a softball tournament. "Drive safe!" I put on my seat belt, laughed a little at her broken recordness, and settled into the passenger's seat. One turn and less than a mile later, I was crawling out of a car we had just totalled and calling my mother from a cell phone to tell her we'd been in an accident.* Apparently, I have always been a smart-alec. My mom hung up, informing me that I wasn't funny (She's wrong sometimes, you know. I am funny.). At 16, you aren't really sure what to do when you've been in an accident. I thought calling your parents was a good first step. This seems to work only when you aren't an overly sarcastic child, such as I was. (I know, you're shocked.)

We made it to the softball game. I don't believe we played. We were late and slightly shell-shocked. But we made it. We also gave my mother a bit of advice that day. Be specific. She's never said "Drive safe!" from the front porch. To this day, she yells out "Arrive safe!"

Sometimes, children teach their parents!

*Despite what television would have you believe, airbags are not soft pillowy bags filled with air.