Pedestrians

Driver’s Ed. was largely a waste of my time and summer. I know that educating our society’s

youth on the dangers and realities of driving is important, but it did very little to prepare me for the real world driving experience.

I took the course over the summer at the public high school a few blocks from my house and the class was early in the morning. Since both of my parents had work, I had to bike there every day for several weeks. I remember sitting in the class doodling as our teacher made us take notes on why pedestrians get the right of way, how important it is to follow the speed limit, and sometimes we watched movies on the dangers of drunk driving. Our teacher was boring, but he meant well. Every day he commented on my bike and the weather. Things like:

“It’s been a sunny morning so far, Nicole! I bet it was a nice bike ride over here”

or “You biked all the way here in the rain? Shouldn’t you get a ride from your parents?”

 and even “You look tan! I bet it's from all that biking you do

 Case in point, I rode my bike to class every day. He was a really awkward guy to talk to, but I felt kind of bad for him.

The building I took my driver’s ed. class at was eerily vacant. It was summer time, so none of the students would have been in the building.

One day, I was running late to class and in an effort to save myself some travel time, I cut across the parking lot on my bike. As I was getting close to the bike rack--WHAM! Something slammed into me and I got knocked over.

I was laying on the pavement thinking, “I think I’m ok. Am I ok? I am pretty sure I’m ok”. I checked my arms and legs for movement, so far nothing broken. My hand was bleeding from trying to catch myself from the fall and my leg had a few cuts on it.

 I looked up from under my bike only to see that I got hit by some white mini van

The douche had pulled through to get a close parking spot and apparently I was in the way. Jerk. The parking lot was practically empty and I happened to be in the only parking spot that this guy wanted.

Well, the driver gets out of the car and to my horror I discover that the driver was my driver’s ed. teacher. That’s right; my driver’s ed. teacher just hit me with his car! Amazingly I didn’t flip out or yell at him. I just got up off the ground and asked him, “How did you not see me?” He never answered my question, and sometimes I wonder if it was my fault for cutting across a parking lot, but there is something comical about admitting that you got hit by your driver’s ed. teacher's car.

He was pretty cool with me not handing in homework after that.