This summer a lot of kids around here take driver’s education class. They have more time since school is out and the weather is usually good so they don’t have to worry about trying to maneuver through ice and snow.
It’s amusing to watch them behind the wheel with serious expressions, both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. In a few months they will be multitasking texting friends and putting on make up while drinking a coke forgetting the rules of summer driver’s ed.
After finishing two or three days of classroom instruction they receive a temporary paper card showing they are now qualified for instructions with a licensed driver. My daughter came home all excited and called everyone she knew to tell them she got her “green card.”
One of her friends whose parents are first generation Americans said, “I thought you were born here.”
Her first day of driving she sends me a text:
“OMG hearts racing just finished driving I think I did OK.”
Then a couple of days later she texts me with this message:
“I drove the highway!! And I didn’t go over lines.”
You would think I would be used to this and not nervous since I have two grown sons that were once teenagers but it doesn’t seem to work that way. They will both tell you they didn’t like driving with me in the car because I made them nervous. I think they are exaggerating. I don’t remember gasping, grabbing the dashboard and pressing my foot into the floorboard looking for the brake near as much as they let on.
I’ll let her daddy ride with her for a few months until she’s mastered the wheel, then maybe I’ll be ready to sit in the passenger’s seat.
