I can remember the first day of junior year like it was yesterday. I was finally being called an “upperclassman,” I got a higher rank in my section in band, but most importantly, I got to go off campus for lunch.

The first day was scary. My lunch group left Southeast Park 15 minutes before the tardy bell for fear of being late and rushed to class before we realized we still had another ten minutes until class started. However, just because we were in a hurry, we did not run STOP signs, forget to yield or completely forget how to drive. We followed the law, even when we thought we were going to be late.

Now, after a whole year of being able to go off campus, I know what time I need to leave my house in order to arrive at school with plenty of time to get to class. Most days, I run into juniors who think they are going to be late to class and break a few laws trying to get there.

Last Wednesday, I was driving back to school after eating lunch when I was stopped by the red light at the square. I sat and watched as two juniors failed to honor the “right-of-way,” nearly crashing into the driver’s side of a vehicle. The worst part were the smiles on their faces as they waited for the woman to pass and continued to speed down 4th street.

The woman could have been seriously injured that day. What most people do not seem to realize is a car is not just a vehicle to get them from place to place; it is a weapon. It is so easy to look down at a cell phone, run a stop sign or enter an intersection at the wrong time, but the consequences are more difficult than waiting to park to look at a text, waiting at a stop sign to look both ways, or being aware of other cars on the street.

Having a license does not, in fact, mean that I can forget everything I learned from the parent-taught packets for which I paid good money. A license indicates that I studied, learned and retained the information I worked on for two hours each day.

Every licensed driver should take care when driving. The ability of a car to do serious damage is often not realized until it is already done. Then, it is too late to say, “I wish I had slowed down.”