Coming of Age 3: Receiving my Driver's License

Throughout most of our adolescent lives, we rely almost entirely on our parents for food, money, and transportation. Therefore, a major moment in any adolescents’ life is to receive his or her driver’s license. It gives them a much greater amount of freedom than they had previously ever experienced.

After badly failing the first test, I thought that I might never be able to free myself from the restraints of not having a license. If I failed another, I would have to wait another 6 months before I would be allowed to try again. Aware of this fact, I decided to focus myself to doing what I had to in order to prepare. After a little time spent preparing and some luck, I was finally able to pass the test and receive a driver’s license.

Receiving a license changed many things for myself. With the license came a whole new set of responsibilities. Because of our large family (seven kids), my parents were constantly busy and not always available to drive or pick me up from places. While my dad would stay at work from about seven in the morning to about 8 at night, my mom had the primary responsibility of transportation.  Taking kids to school, friend’s houses, and soccer practice were all a part of her daily routine. Although my mother did a superhuman job in taking care of us all, she did not always have the time to provide us with a ride.  Now that I had a driver’s license, it did not only mean that I could now drive myself around, but I would also have an added capability to assist my parents in their driving obligations. While many young male drivers are sometimes reckless, because of my duty to my siblings made me view driving as a huge privilege and responsibility because their safety was in my hands. Additionally, now that I had a license, I would not have to be picked up or dropped off from friend’s houses. This meant that I could basically come and go as I pleased. I was responsible for my own curfew and decisions I made. Because of my new freedom my parents had to trust me to make wise decision. In the end, this helped me build trust with my parents through my maturity and integrity.

In conclusion, receiving a driver’s license was a coming of age for me because it opened up a new world of possibility. It was how I decided to handle and use the freedom that my license gave me that built not only trust and confidence with my parents but also maturity for myself.