When I was in eighth grade, I had one of the best teachers I had ever had. He taught social studies and always told our class crazy stories about his adventures and memories during his many worldly escapades. The one thing he was always asked about was the giant scar he had on his forearm. Every time a student would ask it, he would tell an outrageous story about how he fought sharks or used to be a circus performer. At the end of the year, he gathered all of his students in the auditorium and finally told us the real story about how he obtained his scar through an incident of impaired driving.

He told his story about how he was drunk driving with his friends and flipped his car into a ditch. With tears in his eyes, he told us that the incident was the worst mistake he had ever made, and he warned us not to follow in his footsteps. Now in high school, I still remember the pain in his voice as he issued his warning. My friends who attended the same meeting regularly drive impaired to this day, and I can only wonder how they can continue down that path after hearing our old teacher's story.

Hearing his story made me remember my past experiences with impaired drivers. When I was in elementary school, my dad and I got into a nasty car crash. He crashed his car into a house and snapped his neck in the process. I later learned that this was because he was intoxicated while driving behind the wheel. My father and I got very lucky, but there are many stories of drivers losing due to drug-related impaired driving. Drunk driving is a major problem in our modern world, and education programs should continue to advertise it as a severe danger for both the abuser and the public. 

When I was taking driver's education, I was given similar lessons about impaired driving. My program focused heavily on vehicle operation while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. There were endless lectures about how dangerous it was to drive while high and how you're putting both yourself and others at risk. After hearing my old teacher's story, I couldn't agree more on this sentiment. As I look back on my driver's education now, I wish that other forms of impaired driving were advertised as well as alcohol and drug consumption.

I find that there are less talked about forms of impaired driving that are more common in the modern world. For example, phone usage while driving has been extremely common among my personal friend group. I would need more than two hands if I wanted to count the number of times I have heard about one of my friends getting into an accident because they were texting while driving. Despite this, I found that technology was rarely talked about in my driver's education classes. I remember instructors talking more about the Bluetooth capabilities of cars than warning about the dangers of texting while driving. I believe that hands-free technologies in cars are still a form of distracted driving and need to be more regulated in vehicle technologies. I also feel that driver's education programs need to have a more expanded section about phone usage while behind the wheel. Another form of impaired driving I see daily is extreme emotions behind the wheel.

Road rage and other forms of emotional outbursts are also quite common for new drivers. In driver's education, they briefly warned me and other students about driving while tired, angry, or depressed. They advised young drivers to stay off the roads if they were experiencing these strong emotions because it could impair driving ability. Looking back, I wish they had touched on this subject more. Every time I drive on a busy road, I see multiple instances of unsafe driving due to road rage. I have also noticed that my driving abilities worsen when I am under extreme stress or am having a bad day. Road rage is rarely considered impaired driving, but it should be more widely recognized. Anyone is capable of unsafe driving when under extreme stress, and it could potentially lead to devastating consequences.

Overall, the term impaired driving has many different meanings. There are many things drivers do that they don't classify as distracted driving. As a young driver, I will continue to hold myself to the standards I hold others to and remain aware at the wheel at all times. Thousands of lives are lost every year due to impaired driving, and I chose to play my part in lowering these statistics in our world.