“I first started driving around a year ago.

What first came as a shock to me when I started driving was the acceleration pedal—it was super sensitive. If I hit it, I would jerk forward. Obviously, at that point, I had never driven a vehicle, so I didn’t know how much pressure to put on the pedal, and I put a lot of force then.

I’ve been to the school’s parking lot on a few occasions—for the eMotion show and for other events. One occasion during senior sunrise, we had a good amount of seniors there, but on the second occasion when I went to eMotion, it was more chaotic in the garage because everyone went to that. It was a long line just trying to get out, and I waited until most of the cars got out so I could safely drive out of my parking spot without hitting anyone.

Another time, I was at Butler Stadium, and [I had to get out one way]. A car was going in, and I had to accelerate, but I was still moving slow. The cars behind me were going fast, so they nearly hit me. They swerved off to avoid hitting me and honked aggressively, and I apologized.

I think I try to be a good driver. But, you know, everybody’s not perfect, and there are mistakes that I make, obviously, like cutting people off when I really need to. But I try to be careful when I can, like I said in the parking garage. I know my capabilities.

I think our age, like how we are as teenagers, makes us more rebellious. We want to break the rules. So I think, yes, teenagers live up to the stereotype of driving fast or irrationally. Although there are outliers, teenagers drive quickly and have a carefree approach. They just do what they want, regardless of the repercussions, and want to do something that makes them happy or cool, even though they know that it could have dangerous effects on another person.”