Wanna go for a drive?
When I first got my driver’s permit on my 15th birthday, I remember feeling all the excitement and anticipation that comes with one’s first trip to the DMV. As I waited in the ridiculously long line to take the photo that would follow me for the foreseeable future, I felt an immense sense of freedom and independence. The allure of being able to come and go as I pleased or drive myself and my friends to and from school or extracurricular activities seemed to mark the end of my childhood and the beginning of the long-awaited age of being a teenager.
Now, however, after years of being a licensed driver, driving doesn’t seem to carry those same feelings of liberty or autonomy. Rather, driving creates a comfort that is hard to put into words. As I open the driver-side door of my car, I am reminded of all the memories that have occurred within my hand-me-down Honda CR-V. Whether it is memories of picking up my friends to listen to Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR as sophomores in high school or driving my friends to our high school graduation blasting The Spins by Mac Miller or leaving for college and seeing my childhood house grow smaller in my rearview mirror while I cried to Taylor Swift’s Never Grow Up, my car has been a place of both incredible joy and sadness. I’ve experienced hard conversations in that car, spent hours on the phone with my parents filling them in on my college life in that car, shared secrets and stories with my closest friends in that car, cried real tears, and laughed full-body laughs in that car.
While going for a drive was once an action that made me feel like I was living on the edge or on the cusp of teenage freedom, it is now something I do when I feel overwhelmed or stressed. My car has become a safe haven from the chaos of life that occurs beyond its four walls. It is a space to sing at the top of my lungs, cry when life feels like it's too much or happening too fast, or simply be when I feel like I need a moment of silence among the noise and havoc that is so common to life.
It's not uncommon for my friends and I to text one another “Want to go for a drive?”. In fact, that string of six simple words is perhaps one of the most comforting messages I will receive during my day as I anticipate the destinationless drive, blasting music with the windows down, escaping reality for a short amount of time.
In a world that is not known for its peaceful and calming environment, it is important to create places or things that can bring comfort to your life. Finding these moments can help to ground you and ease anxieties, ushering in past memories and creating new ones that are sure to make you smile. For me, these moments most often happen in the comfort of driving my car, but these moments can occur anywhere: when listening to your favorite song, eating at your favorite restaurant, or lying in your childhood house's yard. Find your place of comfort and lean into it; it's okay to need to get away from reality for a little while.