"Cubing" My Way to an Educational Narrative

     Forewarning: Sorry guys, I just started writing and this all came out. It's much longer than it should be.

       1. Describe It:

It seems simple, right? “How I Learned to Drive”. How generic. How ridiculously simple. She’s writing her paper about that??  Yes, I am. Driving a car is not the easiest thing in the world at first. For me personally, I was terrified. I was also 18 years old when I learned how. Not for a lack of wanting to learn, but because of geography. I grew up in Wilton, California. A country town that was so small, it wasn’t even on the radar. You’d have to drive for miles before you ever saw your neighbor. Because I lived way out in the sticks, the driving schools from the nearby cities wouldn’t come out to our house. They said it was too far. (Understatement of the century!) So, it wasn’t until I graduated high school and moved to Folsom that I learned how to drive. And I was at a serious disadvantage. My uncle Dave comes to my apartment & says, “Come on, it’s time to learn so you can pass that DMV test.” To my astonishment, we walk outside & I don’t see his champagne-colored Suburban he always drove. I see a shiny black Honda Civic; and it’s mine! We get in and that’s when it hits me: this car is a stick shift! He took me up the hill and tried to teach me how to drive it. Big problem! I’m stopped at a stop sign in a residential neighborhood. No big deal. Except I forgot to mention that this stop sign is on the steepest hill I’ve ever seen in my life!! There are cars behind me honking, and I’m trying to get them to go around me. I know that as soon as I take my foot off that brake, I’m sliding backwards and I will crash right into them… (More to come)

       2. Compare It:

I know it seems like a cliché to say this, but learning how to drive a car is like riding a bike. It’s really scary in the beginning, especially if you don’t have your training wheels on! It’s just one of those things in life that you need to learn how to do, and after a while (hopefully) you’ll be really great at it. And over time, no matter how long it’s been since the last time you were behind the wheel, it is a skill that you will never forget.

       3. Apply It:

How can driving a car be used? I have a one-word answer to that question: Life. Sure, people survive without cars, and some even prefer it that way. But before I learned to drive and had my own car, I was not independent. I lacked the freedom and ability to take off for the weekend and go on a road trip with my friends. I couldn’t wake up on my day off and decide, “I think I’ll go to the beach today”, without having to worry about weather conditions or how long the walk would take. It’s freedom, and it’s priceless.

4      4.    Associate It:

Here’s the clincher: the basis for my educational narrative. I see learning how to drive as a metaphor for the most important lessons one can learn throughout their life. Rules for applying the brakes translate as: stop whenever necessary, but do it slowly. Stopping abruptly & without cause can lead to a collision. Rules for acceleration: learning how to move forward. Take your time, and look both ways. Think before you act. And finally, being in neutral: stop and smell the roses. It is your halfway point between what lies in front of you and what you’ve left behind.