A Green Monster Multi-ton Tool of Potential Mass Destruction.

There it was before me: a green monster multi ton tool of potential mass destruction with more moving parts than I can shake my fist at. I knew why I was there, trembling before it. In my hand was the silver key to that machine, and supposedly I was to control the monster. "Uh, I don't think I can do this," I said to my mother. "Just get in the car," she replied.

The ability to drive a car in today’s mechanized and urban society is now a necessity in my life, as opposed to as little as 2 years ago, when everything I needed was within walking distance, or along bus routes. Ten minutes walk from my house lies two shopping centers, each centered on a grocery store. If I wanted to walk farther and for a bit longer, the Laguna Hills Mall and all of the stores on El Toro Road were available to me. In the opposite direction there was Laguna Hills High School, where I went for several years, about a twenty minutes walk away. Only recently have events propelled me to take the first step from a mode of transportation involving two legs and a mode of transportation involving four wheels.

One month ago, events compelled my mother to take a stronger role in her eldest sisters life by helping her with her 9-year-old child. This left very little time for her to drive me around to places I could not walk to. Begging rides from friends was getting wearisome to both me and my friends, and so I took the one option I had been dreading to take for quite some time: Actually learning how to drive.

And there it was before me. I had the keys to the car in my paws. I don’t remember if my hands were shaking when I put the key into the ignition of the green Toyota Echo and turned it, starting the engine, but I know that I certainly was calm as I backed out of the garage slowly, less I accidentally hit a little kid running stupidly across the street. After a near eternity of looking over my shoulder, I pushed the brakes to stop the car, closed the garage door, and put the car into ‘drive’.

From that point on, a switch was turned off inside me. I felt no fear, no trepidation being at the controls of my multi ton vehicle of potential mass destruction. While I did get worried from time to time about my performance driving, it was only when I was stopped did I think about my errors. While driving, they corrected automatically. My phobia of driving was mostly abolished in that first lesson. While I still do not have my license, I know I’m going to pass the driving test when it comes along.