I have never been a drunk driver, and I hope I never will. I was, however, an impaired driver once. This is the story of how smart people can make stupid mistakes too. 

     I am not typically what one would consider an irresponsible teenager, or the type of person one would expect to make the reckless decision of driving a car while heavily impaired. I have a stellar reputation at school. I have a high GPA and volunteer often in my community. Reckless drivers aren’t always drunk, adrenaline junkies, or rule-breakers. Even people who seem highly intelligent and well put together can do really reckless things at times. 

     I don’t drive often. On a typical day, I would just walk to school. It wasn’t very far from my house, around 30 minutes if I walked at a brisk pace. Today, however, my ever-involved mother handed me my glittery, teal driving glasses and insisted I climb into the plush front seat of our old,  beaten-down blue Toyota. 

     I had finally gotten my permit to drive a few months ago, after many long hours of studying the drivers handbook, but I was sadly unable to find the time to practice physically driving in my busy day–to–day schedule, since  school and work took priority over it. It was my mother’s brilliant idea that morning  to have me start driving myself to school. It seemed to her a quick way to get in 10 minutes of driving in the mornings. The only problem is that she did not tell me I was going to be driving until that exact morning. 

     As it happened, I had stayed up nearly all night online. I do not indulge in this bad habit very often, but in perfect accordance with Murphy's law, this was the first time in months that I actually did do something irresponsible.

     Despite not staying up late often, I had done it enough to know exactly how my body responded to the lack of sleep. I was drunk. If a cop gave me a breathalyzer test, no alcohol would show up in my system, but the way both my body and brain slowed and wandered was almost exactly the same as being intoxicated. Now, I had to face a difficult dilemma.

     Now, I had already gotten in serious trouble for staying up late before. I didn’t want to face the wrath of my mother, nor did I want to get myself grounded again. Not being able to come up with a lie quick enough in order to find a way out of it, I took the keys with resignation and agreed to drive myself and my mom to my high school. 

     I only made it down the block before my mom took over. That was the first time I had nearly crashed the car. I was trying my best to pay attention, but my driving muscle memory was never too good. The lack of sleep only made things worse. I accidentally mixed up the brakes and the gas, causing the car to speed up when I really needed it to stop. 

     Now everyone was fine, and no car was hit, thankfully. It was a wide road and a small town. We were almost completely alone, and my little blunder wasn’t seen by anyone. But what if we were somewhere else? Or what if it was a very busy day? I could have actually hurt someone. I could have seriously injured myself and others, and for what? Because I didn’t want to get grounded? I came to realize that a week or so without a phone is much preferable to months of physical therapy and hospital bills. 

     Being responsible, being sober, and being a good person doesn't make you immune from driving distracted. We all do it, all the time. I would go as far as to say that our society encourages it. Maybe people don’t have the luxury of not using a car if they are not in the state to drive. Some don’t have friends and family to drive them and are at risk of losing their jobs, which can be miles away.

     I will do my best to not drive distracted, to get enough sleep to maneuver a vehicle safely and calmly, and to take responsibility when I can’t. No one is perfect. Still, we all need to try.  

     Even then, that doesn't solve the bigger issue. I believe that one of the best steps we can take towards having fewer people driving distracted is to have better public transportation so that if someone physically cannot give enough focus to the road for whatever reason, they have somewhere else to go. It’s safer and more sustainable. It may begin with the individual, but it ends with better legislation and infrastructure. We are all at the wheel of our country's future. A safer tomorrow rests in all of our hands.