As it turns out, I’m not a very good driver. I thought I was because I’ve never gotten a ticket or pulled over, but now I’ve started this whole hitting cars thing

When something bad happens, a nice way that we try and rationalize it is by telling ourselves that some day down the road, we will look back at this moment and laugh hysterically.

My life is full of those moments. And yes, some of the things that I have done I am now able to laugh about.

My dad still makes fun of me for a party my friend threw while she was cat-sitting and we all got totally busted because it turned out there were security cameras. At the time, I thought my life was over. I thought my parents would never forgive me.

I also thought I’d never get past the time that I got caught with cigarettes by the police when I was underage. But now, we can laugh about it.

I find that as I get older, there are many more new and exciting ways to upset your parents. You don’t need to throw a house party or get caught with Marlboro’s; I find that hitting cars works well.

As it turns out, I’m not a very good driver. I thought I was because I’ve never gotten a ticket or pulled over, but now I’ve started this whole hitting cars thing. I’ve hit two cars in the past two months. One of them was parked.

A parked car! I hit a parked car!

There aren’t any excuses for that one. It’s a stationary object; it isn’t like it just came out of nowhere. It was in the parking lot for my apartment building and I live below the guy whose car I hit.

It’s proven to be a somewhat awkward situation. There’s no escaping it, I’m constantly reminded of what an idiot I am for hitting a freaking parked car.

I’ve done some stupid things, but hitting a parked car is pretty close to the top of the list.

My family and I were just getting to the “we can laugh about this now” stage too, and what do I do? I hit another car! I mean seriously, no wonder my parents are mad at me.

My recent accident wasn’t totally my fault. He wasn’t using a turn a signal, but I was following too closely and couldn’t stop in time and I rammed into his little Geo Prizm with my much larger Jeep.

My car, while a little battered and bruised, is OK. But I supposedly created more damage on the Geo than the car is worth. That’s just great. Just freaking great.

I have been incredibly lucky that none of my car accidents have resulted in any injuries. The first thing my parents asked was if I was OK. Once they found out I was fine, they could get mad.

The thing is I’m pretty sensitive when it comes to this stuff. I hate upsetting people, especially my parents.

While I cannot change the course of events, I can still feel really, really horrible about the whole thing. I’ve disappointed and inconvienced my parents, put yet another dent in my car and I’ve created the same kind of problems and inconviences for the guy whose car I hit and his parents.

I’ve always been really good at worrying. I know it isn’t going to do anything, but still I worry. I’ve spent hours beating myself up over this. And I have to keep telling myself that thankfully no one was hurt. I’m still going to be able and wake up tomorrow and put both my feet on the floor.

I think that is why our parents get so upset with us over car accidents — they are so scared that they could have lost us. After all, it’s only a car, and thankfully not a fatality. While it is annoying and a hassle to deal with the problems that result from a car accident, at least there aren’t hospital bills or funerals to plan with this one.

And maybe years from now, we’ll be able to laugh about the Geo I crashed into. Hopefully.

> Comments