Getting My License at 16: A Taste of Freedom
Back when I turned 16, I could taste the freedom. In Kentucky, at that time, you applied for your permit when you turned 16, and at 16 and a half, you could take your driving test. Six months to the day after I turned 16, my dad took me to the DMV and I aced my driving test.
My Driving Test with “The Dragon Lady”
It helped that my driving test proctor, who was nicknamed The Dragon Lady, had a terrible migraine. She laid her seat back, covered her eyes, and said, “If you don’t kill us both, I’ll pass you.” My parallel park was behind one car, not in between two, and I didn’t hit any cars, so they gave me a driver’s license, and my life changed forever.
That weekend, I took my little Mustang out and my friends and I cruised Frederica Street in Owensboro. Life was sweet. The following year, for some unknown reason, my parents let me drive my sister’s car down to Florida with friends for Spring Break!
How My Parents Gave Me Freedom as a Teen
It just made me realize that I had a lot of freedom when I was in high school. My parents didn’t want to pick me up from my friends’ houses after 10 PM, so they welcomed my freedom because it meant freedom for them too. They bought me the car. They even paid the insurance! The only rule was that if I was going to be late, I had to let them know. They bought me a candy bar cell phone with a few prepaid minutes just for this reason.
And long before I turned 16 and a half, I’d beg my parents to pick me up well after midnight from friends’ houses or places like the movies that stayed open late. I had a great group of friends, and we never caused trouble, so sometimes they’d let me stay out and drag themselves out of bed to come pick us up. But again, I had a pretty tame group of friends…