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Cake day: June 9th, 2024

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  • I still remember one time as I was a new driver, I saw a friend in the other lane, and I told my parents, “look, there’s my friend!” And I looked over at her, and started accidentally turning my car into the direction I was looking.

    My parents quickly told me to drive straight, and I got control of the car again, but this goes to show that it IS a skill to be able to look around, at mirrors, at the blind spot, etc, without also moving the steering wheel. But you will get better at it with more practice and especially good experienced drivers or instructors helping you practice.


  • You will make your own choices based on your experience, but I would advise you to reflect on what specifically led to your accident.

    I also learned to drive late (at 18) because I rode my bike everywhere and didn’t have a car anyway, and didn’t feel quite in control. I was anxious about following all the rules. But a high schooler 3 years older than me said once she realized that you basically weren’t allowed to hit anyone else, and all the other rules fall under that, driving made a lot more sense.

    The 60 hours of supervised driving never felt long enough for me, and I kept trying to get practice sessions with my parents after that. I once drove some friends around somewhere and realized I wasn’t as safe as I wanted to be, so after that I didn’t drive friends around for a while until I got more skilled.

    Because while I was learning to drive, I really couldn’t do other things at the same time: listen to a conversation, the radio, think about anything that hard – I had to remove distractions to focus on driving.

    Much later when I had more practice, driving got to be more second nature, and I feel safe driving other people around again.

    I went through this one more time when I learned how to drive standard (“stick shift”), I had to remove distractions and focus on how to drive, or I could have a lot of difficulty.

    So I don’t think you should give up driving entirely, because no one starts out as a “good driver” and you may need more practice than perhaps you think you “should” need. But you should take your responsibility seriously, and figure out how to get more safe practice opportunities, and take care to remove distractions and set yourself up for success. Which might mean saying no to driving in certain situations, but yes in others, until you are more skilled.