In the far left lane, you must soar through opposing lanes and reach the destination as fast as possible. I’m cruising, and enjoying my ride… until, “Oh no.” I say as I witness someone significantly slower than me. In a worst-case scenario, there is now a semi-blocking me-in. If it isn’t evident, my pet peeve is slow drivers. Semis, regular cars, and traffic are the big three of my nightmares

Seeing a semi is a gamble to take, but more often than not they are slow drivers. When encountering a semi, I always know I will go ten under the limit and lose hope. An active highway with flowing traffic soon merges into heavy traffic. “I’m going to be late!” I think to myself as I slow down and try anything in my power to get out of this situation.

It gets more demotivating when I see a normal/street car driving extremely under the limit. It is very evident that they have the capabilities to speed up, but they choose not to.  Being stuck behind a normal car is like a fly being stuck in a flytrap plant. In front of me is the sticky plant, and I’m the fly heading into the traffic trap. 

The worst of all is straight traffic. Lasting as long as the Amazon River, maneuvering is not an option and is being met with the inevitable doom of traffic. Being Dale Earnhart is not an option now. The number of times I have been affected by rush hour, construction, or plain traffic is more than enough to count on my fingers despite being a novice and driving for only two years. I’ve made a bad habit of sometimes rolling down my window to look at what I was dealing with, or my famous sunroof to wave goodbye. An effort will not be made to speed up me, so I know I’m in the clear.

Rather than getting angry over this, learning to accept the conditions I can’t control is more important to me now. Safety is the most important thing on the planet, and I must adjudicate to keep myself safe, and others. As a group, we take the present for granted. People are in far worse situations and this could have happened from being unsafe on the road. Parents want to come home to their children every day and don’t want to make a phone call that they are in the hospital. Understanding the concept of safety has driven me to fix my ways. I would never want to be the person responsible for an accident.

I enjoy driving, but it comes with responsibility. While this pet peeve is hard to break, I need to focus on the bigger picture and not let a semi, car, or traffic deter me away from my goals of being safe and causing malice on the highway.