Life is Like Driving…

Where are you heading?

Honestly, I don’t know how to drive.

I’ve been meaning to learn but I am too scared.

Wheeew…I can barely cross the street.

My boyfriend will be going to a Driving School finally (after months when he was telling me he will go) as he has a friend who will go to.

I wish him luck and am hoping that he’ll pass – I told him he has to so that I don’t have to hail a cab every now and then and his reply – a silly smile.

I will get my chance; I need to have all the courage, in the future.

It made me think: Life and Driving has a lot in common.

Let me point them down:

You Have To Learn First

Ideally, one should go to a Driving School – you need to learn the basics, the traffic rules and the best part – the hands on before they handover that gleaming license of yours and let you go off the road.

Just like when we were young. We have to go to school and spend years trying to learn as much as we can – from writing, reading, doing the math’s and finally taking a degree which is more likely what you will pursue after school. I dreamed of being a teacher when I was in Grade School; a Chemist when I was in the Junior High; a Writer when I was in College – I am now working for a TelCo-owned company as a Customer Care Supervisor.

What Car Do You Drive? Or Which One Would You Want To Drive?

I know people who are excited and scared at the same time during their first day on the road. Excited - as finally they have the power behind the wheel and scared - wishing and hoping not to hit something and have violations on his first day.

There are also those who have their car already and decided to learn how to drive later on. There are those who want to learn how to drive before they get one. One maybe driving a Porsche or a Lamborghini or a Toyota one or one prefers to have a simple car; One maybe looking for style while the other wants functionality.

Once I got out of the university, I was excited to work and earn my own money and scared – praying that there will be enough work opportunities. There are those who want to work immediately after school and some had chosen to relax after years of studying. There are those who had chosen another career path – different from what they had studied; and there are those who had extremely excelled in their chosen profession.

Who Will Seat Beside You or Be With You In The Car?

I normally seat in the front seat if I know the driver is a gentle/safe one but if not, and he is a speeding type (the one who thinks he is on a race track), you will see me scrambling to the back seat.

Given the chance, if I will be the one to drive, of course I will let someone close to me to seat beside me.

It could be my family, my boyfriend or dear friends. I am the type of person who is a little aloof and shy at sometimes – I can say.

I do not trust people easily however I can easily read people – yeah I am a Psychic. Seriously speaking, I am a keen observer. I want to thank my college professors for that. Ha! Ha! Kidding aside, I easily have ideas about people if they are for keeps or not.

Some people may prefer to be alone in the front seat and have passengers seated at the back.

One may also be kind enough to let in hitchhikers or one may not be. Some feared that they might be pretending to be one and they are robbers and the like. We cannot blame them for thinking that way as there had been several instances of such on the road.

In life, we are also sometimes afraid to let some people in as they may not be of good influence and worse, may only lead us to danger.

Obey the Rules

As a driver, of course, one is expected to follow the rules and regulations on the road. It is not only for your own good – think about the one sitting beside you, your passengers and the others who happen to be on the same road as you are. In short, be safe.

In life, we need to abide the rules, mores, norms that we had been used to or told, or are perceived to be the right thing to do.

Checkpoints, Humps On The Road and Traffic Jams

There are times cars are asked to stop for sometime – for security check. There are also humps on the road wherein you need to slow down. A driver’s nightmare might be traffic jams – one might be stuck there for minutes or worst, even hours.

There are times in our life when we need to check on ourselves and slow down. We all have destinations or things to achieve however, we may need to take it slow. As they say, it is better to drive slowly than sorry. There are also points wherein we are just stuck in a situation and we cannot get out – no turning back. There might be cases wherein we will be asked to re-route. We just need to be patient and hope that things will go smoothly, or find ways on how to find a shortcut and if God permits, we shall reach our destination/s still.

The Traffic Light and Signs

I am really fond of the traffic light. I am curious how many combinations are there and it’s so smart that it does not give out the same color at the same time (Yeah. See the wonder of computer programming). It will tell you stop, go or hold on: you will take your turn later. This is exactly what happens in our lives – either we get what we want, or changed what we want or just wait for it.

There are traffic signs on the road to guide us or flag us. These can be people in our lives – reminding us and makes sure that we are safe.

A driver should also focus on the road. A driver is required to look on his left, right and back side. In life, we also have to look on our past but we need not dwell too much on it. We need to keep an eye on the road, this present moment, so that we will reach where we wish to be.

Joy Ride

There are most of us who wants to have a joy ride every once in awhile: the silence and emptiness of the streets during dawn; the blood rush that we feel when we don’t know where we will be if we follow a certain track. We might be lost at sometimes but we always find our way back.

Same like driving, some times we need to sit back, relax and just enjoy the ride!

P.S.

I had submitted this as a guest post for Nat's Blog :)