Hello. This is my fourth blog post for my English Composition class. This week we read Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway which featured examples of symbolism and dialogue. A theme that is shown in Hills like white elephants is not speaking what you truly think, and In my emotional scene I did exactly the opposite, save for explaining myself. Another theme in the short story is unhappiness/anxiety in a situation and I think that connects strongly to my scene.
I am what you could call a nervous driver, or maybe an inexperienced one. I passed my license test in February of this year with only two driving lessons of experience to back me up. Since then, I have not been behind the wheel once up until this passing weekend. I went to visit my family over the weekend in Boyertown because I don't get to see them often. I need to get more comfortable driving as I want to purchase a car soon and still feel uneasy behind the wheel. My cousins, Ariana and Kalle have been letting me drive around on our errands as a way of practice and I was doing great. “You’ve gotten so much better since the last time I’ve seen you” said Ariana. We were on our way to her husband's mother’s house to drop off her baby for the night as we were all going to have a sleepover. “Really?” I said surprised; I was not confident in myself what so ever, “I feel like I’m still super hesitant and unsure of myself. I definitely couldn't drive without someone in the car with me.” We pulled into the driveway and Ariana brought the baby inside as Kalle and I began talking. We got into a super serious discussion about something and my anxiety began to go through the roof because of what we were talking about. I was basically on the edge of having an anxiety attack when Ariana came back outside ready to go. I looked over, “I don’t want to drive home, I’m not feeling it.” “You’re going to drive, you need the practice. You’ll be fine, you drove perfectly on the way over here.” Ariana said dismissing my comment. “Okay, fine.” I replied, not wanting to explain how I was feeling. I could already feel myself getting more worked up by the second as I knew my brain was too scattered to even begin to focus on the road. I made the slowest three point turn I have ever seen in my existence then turned onto the road at the top speed of one mile per year. The second I turned onto the road I swear my nerves got so bad I couldn't even see straight; it was almost like my vision was blacking out. I slammed my foot on the brake and repeated myself, “I can’t do this, I can’t drive right now. I have to get out of the car.” Ariana looked at me like I was crazy, “You have to at least get out of the road so we can switch seats.” At that moment I just needed to park the car right there and get out but, my brain was going a mile a minute and had to listen to her. The second I took my foot off the brake, I realized my wheel was still turned; the car speed forward going on top of the curb and slammed into a mailbox. I couldn't even explain how I stopped the car I literally blacked out, it happened so fast. My entire body felt white-hot and the air was knocked out of my lungs. I was mortified, terrified and in the midst of some of the worst anxiety I have ever experienced. “Damn,” Ariana turned her head to face me laughing, “I didn’t think you literally meant you couldn't do it. I just thought you didn’t want to.” I scrambled out of the car, still in the midst of a panic attack; I thought I fucked up the entire front of her car, maybe smashed the headlight and popped the front bumper off. Only after getting out of the car did I realize I didn't even dent the car, only scratched the paint. This was my first ever “car accident” if you could even call it that and when I was behind the wheel it had felt entirely worse than what actually happened. “I am so so so so sorry!” I said almost a million times to Ariana who was outside with me and Kalle who was still in the backseat. In the end everything was fine. There was no damage to the car and the mailbox didn’t even completely get knocked over. It was easily put back into place. The worst part about it was that the neighbor was outside and saw me knock his mailbox over and Nick’s (Ariana’s Husband) sister watched the entire thing happen, which was embarrassing as hell. The neighbor was super cool and helped me put his mailbox back in place jokingly saying, “That was the slowest accident I”ve ever seen!” It was a happy ending to a terrifying experience but, I don't think I will get behind the wheel ever again until I have my own car.
5 Comments
Destiny
9/23/2019 02:10:20 pm
Thank you for sharing your moment Aislyn! I’m sure you’ll get driving down soon enough.
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Alyssa
9/23/2019 04:30:17 pm
Showing different emotions rapidly in your story. Driving takes practice and I believe you become better at it over time. Remember no one is perfect. Great work !
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Jess
9/23/2019 04:36:42 pm
I’m the complete opposite with driving. I’ve been driving my entire life and when I got my first car, I even taught 2 of my good friends how to drive when we were 16. You shouldn’t not drive though, shit happens but practice makes perfect (if not perfect, at least a lot better than before). I feel ya on the anxiety too, sometimes it’ll fuck with me while I’m driving, especially when I’m driving long distances and get deep into thought. I find banging my foot on the floor helps lol.
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naomi
9/24/2019 05:21:21 am
Nice story, you will get better at driving within time. I seen a lot of emotions in your story.
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Sabatino
10/2/2019 08:15:53 am
I appreciate how the blog post introduction provides context for the assignment and points specifically to the emotions being explored in the narrative. I see description, action with dialogue, and themes of emotion emerging here.
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