Driving

I've got a bit of a random note to do my first real post on, but since I've started driving, I've discovered it's a very enthralling experience.

Driving has, in a sense, transformed my life. Though at first I was a bit hesitant and uncertain behind the wheel, with practice and confidence, the act of doing so has become one of the most liberating things I can do at my age.

Being only 16, I'm, obviously, still a minor. My parents have final jurisdiction over most every aspect of my life and being. I'm quite grateful for all they've provided, however, I have an independent streak and INCREDIBLY different views with them on a number of subjects. Home and my room can be just as much a prison as a sanctuary for me.

Things change when I'm sitting behind my truck, though. There's a certain thrill to being outside of your superiors' direct jurisdiction, a thrill to conquering distances that would take hours on foot in mere minutes, a thrill to being alone and in complete control of a gigas of a piece of machinery. The mental freedom, the merging of being in the privacy of a vehicle and the public of the rest of the world, and the physical occupation (I have a bit of a nervous twitch)... the whole experience blissfully treads on the border between hypnotic and attentive.

Besides just the mental... satisfaction, let's say (sometimes my trains of thought can derail my self-opinion, but that's another story. Sometimes a bit of emotional chaos can satisfy you, believe it or not), driving offers freedom and allows one to transcend distances. It gives one something to be responsible for, something to employ, yet, most of all, something to enjoy. My friends, my extracurricular obligations, sometimes just even indulging myself, all are made possible with the turn of a key and the manipulation of a wheel, some pedals, and some levers.

So, yes, in short, I am a teenager who likes to drive.

Oh, on a side note, tomorrow's musing may be short or otherwise non-existent in light of the fact that I will be at school balancing play practices, supercomputing preparations, and an actual play performance from 7:00 AM to... probably about 9:00 PM.

Take care, have a good one.

Leif