Yo, Nephew
Good for you on getting a driver's license. As you undoubtedly discovered, the main requirement is age, not skill or emotional stability. Americans consider a driver’s license a birthright. Few people fail to pass the first time. Which means that there is a whole slew of really mediocre drivers out there, and many who are downright lousy. Which means you can't trust that they will act properly or in time. Their reflexes may be awful. They may do absolutely the wrong thing when confronted by a sudden choice. And you don't know if these incompetents are in the car next to, behind, in front of, or all around you. Presume that everyone around you is a bad driver, they don't really know what they're doing, and are bad at reacting quickly or well.
I need to tell you, dear boy, that even at age 50, my mind recalls incidents of truly atrocious driving I did before I was 20. Beyond embarrassing; actually dangerous. I was in the wrong. Thank goodness no one crashed, no one was injured, but the results could have been different. My mistakes were over-rating my own abilities, especially when I was tired. And most especially driving at night. You don't need the details. All I ask is that you drive so safely now that when your my age, you don't have these cringe-inducing images pop into your head.
Henry, you're a quality human being. Keep that at the core of your driving. If you see people driving dangerously -- swerving, going too fast, going too slowly -- let them get by you, or you get around them giving them wide birth.
Remember that you are never in that much of a hurry. Nothing is worth an accident. You don't want to hurt anyone else, or cause others to screw up and get hurt.
When you get angry or frustrated, as you inevitably will during your time on the road, just take a slow, deep breath down into the bottom of your belly, and say to yourself that you hope that the other people around you also keep their calm. You don't want to be part of someone else's accident either.
You’re gonna be plying the Boston roads, which are especially dangerous. Your city was recently named the worst of eight in American for aggressive driving. Drivers were asked about "general safety, rude gestures, speeding and horn honking", and Beantown grabbed the gold at a rate twice as high as the national average. (I should mention that the survey didn’t cover New York City, though most of the criteria seem like standard Gotham driving practices.)
I still get irritated by bad drivers, and what with there being more of them out there every day, the opportunities for observation and comment are legion. People behave differently when they are behind the wheel. Often a different — and most unpleasant — aspect of their character is revealed. It can get dicey when someone small in their own mind attempts to compensate by using the power of an automobile. Courtesy is inevitably the first roadkill.
When you get to my age, most of the issues you face on the road today will be gone. They will have figured out how people might get here and there efficiently — and pollution-free — without zooming about in a one-ton gasoline bomb; driving today is often like bumper cars. And you will likely look back and view some of your best moments in a car as those that took you into the mountains or to the ocean. That’s what they’re for, and they can be pretty good at it if you pay attention and drive with the intention of never having to call your insurance agent.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.