Descriptive Essay



Stephen White
Iron Stream,

I’m so excited. Today’s the big day. I’m at my grandmother’s house in the pool when my Aunt greets me with a surprise. ‘Are you ready?” she asks as she sips her daily cup of black tea. “Ready for what?” I ask in surprise. “For your first driving lesson.” “Of course” I reply confidently. I scarf down my lunch like I haven’t eaten in days then I dash to my room to slip on my nikes and throw on a plain old button up shirt. I slipped my nikes on so hastily that  I didn’t even bother to tie them and then I dashed down the steps and we head out the door.


I’ve been waiting years for this day to come. So we get into the car and she goes over the basics. “Make sure your mirrors are good,  put on your seat belt, and turn the car on.”  I turn on the car and put the car in reverse. I’m not even at the end of the block when she starts screaming at the top of her lungs “TURN! TURN!”  I slammed on the brakes as we were inches away from the curb. I had to catch my breath as I put the car in reverse to try the turn again. “I’ve been driving since I was 10 it’s not that hard” she says. I mumble under my breath as I grip the wheel and grit my teeth to make the turn.

I’m in an empty school parking lot learning how to drive near my Grandma's house. My interest in driving started when I was 12 and we went to the car show at the convention center and saw all the new cars. Seeing the car’s doors shine off the lights, breathing in that new car smell, and being able to sit in the drivers seat I could envision myself on the road. It was then that my interest in driving grew. As I complete the turning section of my Aunt’s homemade driving test we take it to the streets as I drive back to my grandma’s house. I was doing well as I turned back into my grandma’s driveway.

I get out of the car and immediately start receiving criticism. “You have to slow down” “you're not a pro” “both hands on the wheel” she said. “Alright, alright” I say annoyed. I just drove a car for the first time I still had the jitters and her telling me what I was doing wrong wasn’t what I wanted to hear right now. At this point, I wasn’t listening to anything she was saying. All I was thinking about was getting back in the car and back on the road. It was exhilarating driving on the roads I finally was old enough to drive I’ As I made my way in the driveway of course everyone asks hysterically “are you ok?” “how’d you do?” “Yeah I saw you swerving down the street a little bit.” I know they mean well, but give me a break it’s my first time. “Yes I’m ok” “I think I did pretty well” I reply aggravated. A little practice and I’ll get my permit and then my license, I think to myself. When I’m allowed to start driving I doubt I’ll be in the house at all unless it’s necessary. I’ve been looking forward to driving since I was a toddler playing with my toy cars.

Now I’m studying for my driving test that I will take in about 9 months. I took a practice  driving test thinking that I wouldn’t need help on it. When I saw the horrible results of the test I then decided to finally ask for help on driving. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. When I got some help on the test I got a higher score the second time. It turns out that I didn’t know everything I thought I did about driving.


I also learned that asking for help and accepting criticism isn’t a bad thing. Even some people of higher power can accept some help and criticism in running their government. Even the mighty United States need some help. Even though our problems aren’t as big as third world countries we’re so in debt that we’re borrowing money from other countries and getting deeper into debt. Another domestic crisis is our ability to keep jobs in the country. And finally probably the healthcare crisis that affects a great amount of Americans.

Me and some dictators have some things in common. Neither of us take criticism well. Countries ran by dictatorship are usually ran by leaders who are in charge of everything and won’t accept help from any citizens. The citizens have no voice and maybe if the citizens were able to speak their mind and vote the country could rise. Most countries ran by dictators are not doing well at all and thats a fact and just need to accept help thats given to them sometimes like me. I think that all countries should be ran by a republic or a democracy. The United States is ran by a republic and the citizens get a say in who comes to power.

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