A “Driving Lesson” To Remember!

So this summer on my list of things that I want to accomplish before my life becomes consumed with never ending school work, is learning to drive manual (Stick shift). My little Brother (who is actually nineteen and ten times bigger than me), has been trying to teach me for the last couple of weeks, actually months but that’s beside the point. I’ve made some progress, but you will definitely not catch me on a major highway, or more than two blocks away from my house anytime soon. I‘ve got the whole shifting gears thing down while the car is actually moving, but I run into problems every time I have to stop, and get moving again. I just can’t seem to get the car moving without stalling a million times, and causing the car to make horrific noises, and jerking. It does that help that I know other drivers feel a little unsafe because of my presence on the road( I can tell by the way they look at me as they hurry around the car).

**On a side note before I go on. I realllllllly don’t understand why people drive manual, when there are cars that do ALL the work for you. But hey, I guess it’s still good to learn just in case.

The other day as my brother and I left the Bronx to go home (A fifteen min drive with good traffic), he asked me if I wanted to drive home. Of Course I said no, number one because it was the middle of rush hour, Number two because that would have required at least 20 minutes on the highway, Number three I would have had to stop numerous times in the traffic, and at the toll, and number four I just thought it was a BAD idea. My brother of course tried to convince me to drive home, by telling me nothing would happen, and that If by any chance I stalled on the way home I could easily just start the car and keep on driving ( In trying to convince me, he also said some things I rather not mention in the blog, lol). After telling him NO several times, and explaining my reasons he finally gave up, and we headed home. I thought my brother had completely dropped the idea of giving me a “driving lesson”, but I was SO wrong. At first the car ride home, seemed like any normal car ride with my Brother; music so loud I could hardly hear myself think, the smell of the million air fresheners he insist on keeping in his car, and that uneasy feeling I get when he decides that switching lanes every two minutes is ok.

I should have known something was up when Kadeem turned down the radio. Before I could even stop him or truly take in what was happening my brother stalled the car in the middle of the highway right before we went through the toll, threw his hands up in the air and in the most sarcastic tone, and loud voice he could muster goes “O NOOOOO, I STALLED ON THE HIGHWAY, WHAT AM I GOIN TO DO?”, he then looked at me (of course as I started screaming at him for acting like a fool),and continued. “I GUESS I’LL JUST START THE CAR AGAIN, AND START DRVING”. He then proceeded to start the car in slow motion while saying “SEEEE TASHA”. He then started moving the car again, turned up the radio and started driving again like nothing had happened. Five minutes later her turned down the radio, and repeated his little dramatic show once again. By the time we got home we had repeated his little act more than three times. He made sure that he stalled the car in all the areas that I had told him I was scared on stalling at if I myself had driven home.

Although I still cannot drive manual, I am thankful for my brothers little impromptu “driving lesson”!

My Brothers “driving lesson” did not change my mind about driving stick shift on the highway, but his “Driving Lesson” did get me to reflect on life. Life is not always like driving an automatic car, sometimes we have to manually shift gears, and of course there are times when we all stall, and have to regroup and get things moving again.

I encourage you all to remember my brothers “Driving Lesson”. Although there are times in life when things don’t go just as planned, and you don’t have to put in much work to get from one point to the next, or to accomplish your goals there are times when things aren’t so easy. We all go through things that are hard, things that take a little more effort than others. Times when we will stall, have to take a deep breath regroup and get things going again. My brothers “driving lesson” reminded me that no matter the setting (a busy highway or a block away from your house), you can always use the same techniques to get through a rough patch!

***The summer is Almost over, I better get back to my “Driving Lessons” so I can be a Pro before my bro goes back to school!