Cars are death machines for everyone, pedestrian and driver alike.

Today, I did something really stupid while I was driving to go out to eat with my friend on the passenger seat. I needed to turn left—any left—so I turned left at the nearest intersection.

But wasn’t paying attention and I turned into a one-way street. Luckily, there were no cars, but boy was that extremely idiotic of me to not pay attention to the road. I turned my car away from the one-way street and onto the road I was originally driving on, albeit on the side for the other side of traffic. I let my car sit there for a few seconds as I signaled towards the correct, leftmost lane so that I could safely merge with the other incoming cars.

My friend and I are both lucky to have went through that intersection without any harm whatsoever. It was really dumb for me to try and enter that one-way road the wrong way.

My middle school friend is right. Compared to where he lives now (Westminster, CA), “San Jose roads are so chill.” Something crazy can happen on the road (like what I did), and the end result is nothing serious. People can change three lanes with their car quickly without signaling on the freeway and nearby drivers may shake their head or freak out a little bit, but nothing bad will happen. And the same applies to me; I can be an ignorant driver and still be alive.

I’ve gotten used to driving; I’ve become comfortable. But I need to be scared again, like how I was when I first started learning. That way, I’ll be more careful and attentive on the road. I’m part of the population of dumb drivers, and I gotta get out as soon as possible.