I have been driving for almost two years now, and I still have mixed feelings about driving by myself, which I have been doing since August of 2016. I love the freedom and sense of maturity that I get from it, as well as the feeling of “hey, I’m grown up now,” whenever I go get food with friends and things like that. However, there are so many cons to driving, I almost want to be a child again and wait longer to have the responsibility of driving by myself.

First of all, gas is such a pain. My car, (a 2005 Jeep Liberty), has a little screen above the rearview mirror where it can show how many miles I have left before I run out of gas. Honestly, that stresses me out more than the dash gauge itself because it’s so unreliable once it gets below twenty miles. I am one of those people that believe in using every ounce of gas you have so you don’t have to keep going to a sketchy gas station every other day. So when I’m almost out of gas and the screen fluctuates as I’m driving and says I have fifteen miles left, but then says I have around thirty, I’m going to get a little stressed.

Another thing I hate about driving is the people around me. As a driver, the #1 thing I was taught was to always be aware of your surroundings. This stresses me out because, even if I’m aware of someone that’s driving behind me or in front of me, I have no idea what’s going on  inside their heads. They could just decide all of a sudden to break check me or something scary and I’m expected to know what to do in that time of crisis. I have never been in a wreck before and I’m so paranoid that it’s going to happen every time I drive. Another thing about people is you see their true colors when they’re driving. You never know how short someone’s fuse is until you accidentally light it by going before them at a four way, and they blow up at you from inside their car.

Lastly, I can’t stand it when someone touches my radio. I drive my little sister to school every day and man, I love her so much, but sometimes when she wants to talk she will turn the radio off, (when I’m clearly jamming out, mind you), and I can’t express how annoyed I get. Of course, I won’t say anything because she only does that when she gets really excited about something, but in my mind I am screaming at the top of my lungs.

I love driving, I really do. I love the sense of responsibility and how much older I feel when I drive. However, these little things that I still haven’t gotten used to when I drive are things that I could definitely live without.