HOW TO AVOID TRAVELING WITH ROAD RAGE
A Lighthearted and Comedic Piece On Tips to Combat Road Rage, Not the Person in the Other Car.
*Disclaimer, Explicit Content.*
If you are reading this, odds are you experience that bubbling heat boil out and onto the road whenever someone who should have their license revoked decides to get behind the wheel. If not, good for you. You are better than the whopping 80% of the population who has plead guilty to this state of burst.
Starting off in nuetral
Let us drive into it, and unpack some of the reasons behind our need to react on the road. To start off, here are some prime examples of road-rage triggers:
Its night, a storm is brewing, and someone driving who must be wearing a moth costume has decided to turn on their brights. While tailgating you.
Someone decided to cut you off, and now you are subconsciously re-enacting scenes from Beef.
Cartographers have gone extinct, so you now solely rely on the little robot who tells you where to drive. It decides to begin screaming, so now your ears are bleeding, and you cannot hear anything. Not even the ambulance that just took out your right-side-view-mirror.
The little robot decides it doesn’t want to speak today in protest of not being able to say “fuck it!” once and awhile, so you don’t know how to get to work. You call in sick and hate yourself for not designated your career to bringing back the art of cartography.
The little robot has decided to gain consciousness, and begins to speak in an accent that has never been programmed. The whole family is shocked, the kids cannot stop laughing, and through all the chaos you end up driving in circles through a haunted neighborhood. (True story).
Whichever of these you have experienced, just remember-
YOU ARE not THE ONLY ONE
As I mentioned before, 80% of drivers in the United States have admitted to aggressive driving, and that isn’t counting the probable stubborn 15%, and the other 5% of liars. Although I don’t have the exact data, I would bet a good amount on the thought that all of us have angrily reacted while driving at some point in our lives. Ever since our sixteenth birthdays, where we were gifted a certificate to the highway to hell, it has been a wild, and often-times rageful ride. Speaking of rage, that brings me to my next point.
Rage is romanticized
Anger beats sadness, and I have yet to meet someone who has told me they are “thriving in their pit of depression-waves and tear-stained pillows.” With the surge of rap music, which often promotes speaking the truth, there are a lot of inevitable heated feelings that blast through car speakers on a daily basis. There is no one stopping us from rupturing our eardrums to drown out the noise of our own thoughts, and sing-along to some of the best new albums in the century. Freedom of speech is something most of us take advantage of here in the states, and the broad vocabulary that continues to expand has only gotten more creative. This includes all the insults, threats, and synonyms that have made it in the new history books. Although creative freedom and our ability to speak freely is one of the many perks to living in the U.S., its also common to hear a good amount of “shut the f*ck ups” followed by self-expression. Basically, not everyone responds well to others opinions, and blasting them while driving is an easy way to amplify and romanticize fueling anger.
Turning a page on turning into the lane too quick
Getting personal here, I have been known to be “one to rage.” Does it come as a great defense from sadness? Yes. Does it help me defend myself and others? Sometimes. But after listening to a friend say something that sparked a sense of hope for becoming a better driver, I needed to share. During a psychology class one day, my lovely friend brought up that she “doesn’t know what others are ever going through, even on the road. So, I always let people in front.” In other words, she does not believe in aggressive driving. As someone who was raised on rock and influenced to make it before it turned red, I took this anecdote as a subtle wake-up call to get it together. After the class ended, I decided to try it out and say good riddance to road rage. Then again, this is easier said than done. Let me explain.
Patience takes practice
The root of road rage comes from a lack of patience, deep-breaths, and all the hippy practices you can think of. Re-wiring these tendencies to react by flipping the bird, leaning on the horn, and embodying the vibe of a taxi driver, can be difficult. However, keeping the next few things in mind has helped me rage a little less, and drive into the light a little more;
Remembering what my angel-of-a-friend said: “we don’t know what other people are going through.” This is true! Who knows, they could be in labor, recently laid-off, or maybe they are ignorant to the fatality risk that comes with driving.
Turn the bird into a thumbs down. I assure you, it will spark a deeper call-out in the other driver, and take them back to a mental kindergarten.
Practice positivity. I know, I know, its a bit cliche. However, having a positive thought-process is just the start to becoming a better driver, reducing anxiety, and having fun on the road.
Driving can be fun! Road-trips, track-skips, deep-conversations, podcasts… the list goes on. Enjoying driving, and keeping the other thoughts in mind are key to improving road rage.
Stay safe, stay wild (but not too wild now), and have fun on your journey :)
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