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Inside a young mind

By Finn Bell

 

The first step towards getting your full provisional driver’s license is to take a driver’s education class when you are at least fourteen years old. It tries to cram all of the vital driving knowledge into your head within thirty hours, and I have to be honest, it’s not all that stress-free.

I’m not sure whether the curriculum is just very difficult, or if the writers of the course are confused themselves, but there is too little specificity, and too vague of concepts. I have tested on which drivers were the most dangerous on the road and seeing the following answers.

First, an elderly, second, a middle-aged driver, next, a truck driver, and third, a woman. I don’t know why or how that final answer made it through to an actual testing situation, but I find it hilarious that someone would consider that. My goal is not to bad mouth the DMV Officials community, because I wouldn’t want to interrupt their free time, where they are most likely setting thousands of teenage students up for failure when they are required to drive for the first time in their lives, and brainwashing all of the people who must supervise this process. I will say, we teenagers are not the ones at risk, it is men and women who must put their lives in our hands when we are required to get six supervised hours of constructive driving, as our second step in getting our license.

I remember meeting a man in Hendersonville to get my six hours. We pulled up, my parents said “Bye!” and I was immediately told to buckle in, start the engine, and take a left out of the parking lot. Before I did all that I asked, “Are you sure? You can really trust me?”

I was amazed by the man, who felt totally fine letting a true child at the time drive him around one of the busier cities in our area. I guess the brainwashing had worked. I still worry about him, personally knowing some of the people who he must supervise in the future, also knowing that he may not be in good working condition afterward. I recall saying, “I have met one of the bravest men and women on this planet.”

All jokes aside, I find this job requires occupants that are the true masters of fear and stressful situations.

With that, I say this. If you are brave, join the army, but if you are fearless, become a DMV driving supervisor.