“Have you ever been on the highway before?” my driving teacher asked me last week. “Yeah, like once or twice” I said in reply. It was true I had, but only for about a minute at a time. So this week was when I was went driving on the highway I didn’t think it was such a big deal, it’s just a road. My driving teacher took me south to a less crowded part of the highway and I turned on and of coarse there was construction. Only one lane open but as the construction passed more lanes came into view. “Okay Kelsey go to the right lane” so I put on my turn signal and that sound that came on with it, the come on we don’t have all day, last question on jeopardy sound that adds no pressure what’s so ever. Yeah right. “Speed it up,” my driving teacher said so I went faster pushing way over the speed limit and finally made it into the right lane. I looked forward and boom, I had to slam on the breaks because the person in front of me was going around 25 mph when the speed limit was 40 and everyone was going 60. “Okay go to the middle lane,” he said. I almost screamed I just got in this lane, but I guess that was the point to practice switching lanes.

Everything went smoothly for the next 40 seconds or so until of coarse “ Okay go to the right lane.” I was going to kill him what’s the point of switching lanes if I’m just going back to the right lane. I put on my turn signal, click, click, click, I glared at the head board.” Speed it up” again I accelerated passing a silver car to my right. The woman in the car had her phone pressed against her ear using her right shoulder being very responsible keeping both hands on the wheel. Lucky me she goes to merge into my lane while I’m right next to her and my driving teacher took the wheel and turned it so I was away from crazy phone lady who had realized she almost hit me and dropped her phone. I didn’t want to kill my driving teacher so much anymore.” Miami Kelsey” like that justified all the terrible drivers.

I went back into the middle lane once crazy phone lady was gone. I think my driving teacher realized I had almost had a heart attack and let me stay in this lane for a little while. I was getting comfortable again when a big white van, the kind that kids take as private busses to school, pulled out of a shopping center and crossed three lanes to go make a left. I had to hit the breaks again. ”Miami Kelsey” okay I wanted to kill him again. The air conditioner was blowing straight at my right hand so I looked down at my mood ring to make sure that it wasn’t frozen to my, it was black. If you do not have a mood ring and don’t know all the colors of the moods black is stressed. Which was a very accurate description of what my mood was.

Now that I was freaked out and had told myself that I was never going to take the highway anywhere my driving teacher told me to switch lanes. We did this a few times until I had ended up in the middle lane again, which is not a good lane for me. I guess he decided I needed another break so we stayed in the middle lane for a while which I was fine with until we reached this huge 18 wheeler that was trying to make a left and had the back of his truck sticking out into the left lane. I have no idea how he even got in that position but this caused all the cars in the left lane to come over into my lane. There were three that had managed to sneak in front of me and they merged over in a chain reaction and merged back in the same way. First, second, third, first, second, third and it was so graceful the way they made this sort of train that it made me laugh out loud. “Miami Kelsey” okay my fun was over now.

If he said Miami Kelsey one more time was going to pull over and kick him out. He said it many more times and I never kicked him out, but I wish I did now that I think back to it. Finally he decided that I have had enough and told me to turn off the road and onto a nice little back road. I have never been happier in my life then I was when I saw that there was only one lane I could drive in and that the speed limit was 30. My driving teacher is very forgetful so he asks me things more than once “Was that the first time you’ve driven on the highway.” This time I said yes because I realized that I had never really experienced the highway before. All the speeding, distracted people, who do not find it necessary to use there turn signal when they merge in front of you, or think of others when they drive.

By the time we got backed to my house my mood ring had turned orange, orange is unsettled, which I guess is better than stressed. “You did a good job Kelsey I liked the way you changed lanes and drove …” I tuned out my driving teacher because I was having posttraumatic stress and I just wanted to go into my house and sleep and maybe if I woke up I would think it was all a dream. ”Bye Kelsey see you next week,” my driving teacher said. I nodded and waved as he drove away. I am not looking forward to next week.