Coming of Age DRAFT

"Kevin! It's traffic, hurry up!" were the first words I heard from my mom, as I woke up on a Tuesday morning. As a got up slowly, yawning, I walked to my closet to get ready. After putting on my clothes and my shoes, I look at myself for the last time in my closet mirror. I thought to myself, "something’s going to change today."

Making my way downstairs, I rushed to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Pouring milk and Corn Pops into a bowl, my mom yells at me saying, “Hmm, you better hurry up. It’s traffic!” I quickly ate my breakfast, grabbed my driver’s manual and made my way to the car. It took us about 15 minuets to get to St. Joseph School in Waipahu. My mom parked in the front of the school to pick up three of my friends. We were going to the mall after I was done taking my permit test. After we picked them up, we were headed to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Sitting anxiously in the car, I asked my friends “Help me study, I feel like I’m going to fail!” They asked me questions from the manual. The first question went something like this “you are going into a curve too quickly, you should?” I answer the question quickly, “ ease off the gas, and speed up when you regain traction.” The whole conversation from St. Joseph to the DMV were all driving questions. We were nearly 5 minuets away from the DMV and I began to panic, thinking that I was going to fail.

As we made our way into the DMV, I saw a lot of people who were my age. I took a registration card, filled it out and nervously brought to the front desk. The lady looks at me with a genuine smile and says “Hello, are you here to take your permit test?” I smile back and nod my head yes. She asked both of my parents to sign a card and gave me it after. She then told me to bring the card to the cashier to pay two dollars for the written test. I stood in line for the cashier for about 3 minuets. Standing in line for that long made my nerves go away, but made me feel impatient. After I paid, the lady then told me to stand in line by the blue tape. I quietly thought to myself, “ this is such a really long process just to take a permit test.” At last, this was the last line I stood in before I took my permit test. I gave the lady the receipt to prove that I paid for the test. She smiled and gave me a pencil, answer sheet, and a test. My nerves suddenly came back as a walked to my seat.

I sat down, took a deep breath and began my test. I carefully read the first question and in an instant I circled my answer. I did the same thing for every question. By question five I began to wonder, “ why did I think this test was so hard? It’s EASY!” Before I knew it, I finished my test. I happily walked to the front desk to turn in my test, when I accidently overheard the guy talking to the lady at the front desk saying he failed. Hearing that conversation made me feel paranoid. I began to doubt all my answers on my paper and went back to my seat to check. After carefully checking my answers, I confidently turned in my test to the lady. She then pulled out her grading card, and marked my paper a lot of times. Once she was finished correcting my paper, she looks at me with a nice sweet smile and says “You Passed with only two wrong!” My reaction made people around me stare, because I was screaming and jumping. After I calmed myself down, I walked to the camera station to take my picture for my new permit.

From when that camera flashed to take my picture, I felt like a new person. Driving is something that only grown ups can do and that's exactly what it did, it made me feel like a grown up. I was no longer child; I was becoming a young adult. Receiving my permit made me realize that I have new sets of responsibilities to follow as a person and as a driver.