So I was driving down the road the other day thinking about being a new driver. I'm a girl and I'm not too great at being on the road, I won't lie. I don't have much experience yet so mostly I need practice, but I thought about how hard I try not to mess up on the road. I don't want to cause a crash for lots of reasons: I need my car, my mom would kill me for raising her insurance, and I don't want to hurt anyone. Those are out of order but you get my point. No matter how hard I try though I mess up every now and then because of the fact that I don't know the roads too well or what my car will do for certain situations. I tried making a U-turn once at an intersection that allowed it, but in reality when I tried, I realized I didn't have enough room to do so. I ended up holding up traffic because I couldn't make the full turn and it really frustrated me. The other day my boyfriend, Matt, was in the car with me and I tried cutting through a parking lot. As I was doing so another car was ahead of me doing the same thing in the opposite direction. I saw the car and I stopped when I realized that we were going to hit each other if we kept going, but Matt started yelling first. He wasn't trying to scare me, but he made the situation worse because then I just yelled at him back since I had seen the car and therefore had already stopped. His comment to me then was: "I wish you had actually taken drivers ed". (I waited until I was 18 to get my drivers license because I couldn't afford drivers ed).
This statement hurt me because he likes to make fun of my bad driving, and he always makes it about how I'm a woman and women can't drive. This pisses me off. I know plenty of women that can drive really well, I'm just not a natural born driver and happen to be a woman. He makes these comments all the time and I try to argue with him, but he doesn't really listen. There isn't really anything else I can do but keep practicing so that one day I won't be made fun of for my driving. In total I've driven for about 3 months in my life. That's not much and it shows. I suck at parking, I'm always sideways. I take forever to make a turn sometimes when cars are coming because I don't know how fast my car will get me around the corner (it's a piece of crap). I sometimes take the wrong turn, and I'm the worst navigator in the world. When it comes to being on the road, sometimes I'm afraid of being in the car with me.
I don't judge other people based on the road by what they look like or what they drive, but how they drive. If they are driving crazy, I don't to be near them at all. I think that Washington drivers are rather silly for many reasons, but we could go on with that forever so lets skip that. I'm not sure what else I want to say, but I guess leave your comments and we can discuss more?
Washington drivers are not bad drivers....or at least there worse drivers out there. I am from Egypt and I can definitely tell you that Egyptian drivers are the worst of the worst! They may know how to control a car really well, but all traffic laws are "suggestions" to them. I tried driving in Egypt once....almost had a heart attack! The speed is what you want, just because there are three lanes doesn't mean its one car per lane, and people wait for cars to stop, not the other way around! Trust me, your not the worst.
ReplyDeleteThanks XD I understand that I'm not the worst, but it's hard to feel like I should improve when I'm already being judge, you know? Matt isn't the only person who sees a woman driving and thinks "Oh no better be careful". There are other women I know who think that women aren't good drivers! It's crazy.
ReplyDeleteHehhe girl,
ReplyDeleteThat happens to me all the time too. Since I had an accident I got scare of driving, but you know what I still have to drive to get around.Don't be scare we all learn how to drive by practicing. :) The more you do something; the better you get at it :)
Driving can be tricky. It takes a good while to get used to, and to know what you're doing and where you're going. Actually, I may be exactly what you do not like. I can be impatient, and if I have someone in my way I get frustrated once in a while. I rarely drive the speed limit, but rather drive at speeds I know I can safely drive at which under most conditions are faster. I dont need someone telling me how fast I can safely travel. Of course, school and construction zones are an exception, because you cannot always anticipate every little thing.
ReplyDeleteNo, I have not been in an accident nor have I had any tickets.
As far as the idea that women are bad drivers goes, I have mixed thoughts. On one hand, as I mentioned several times this quarter I worked at an indoor kart track and saw a lot of things. One of the first things anyone working there will notice is most women are not good at racing. This doesn't really mean much though. Most of the time, the principals of racing, the idea to go as fast as possible, beyond what is really in control (if you are 100% in control, you're doing it wrong in racing) do not apply to every day driving. Another thing I must admit is in my 2 years of working there, I can safely say the best driver I saw go through there was indeed a girl. A 15 year old girl at that. Still, this isn't too relevant as I mentioned to every day driving, I just thought I'd share my thoughts on it.
Doug