I love road trips. I think they’re a great opportunity to learn about someone new and figure out how long you can actually stand the ones you already know. Because there’s nothing like being trapped in a small space that will tell you how much you actually like a person. Here are seven topics that are crucial to a successful road trip.

1. The Temperature

When you first get in the car it’s a power struggle to see who will take control of the AC. This is an essential moment to the trip. Would you rather sweat for hours on end or be huddled with the person next to you loosing feeling in your fingers and toes? And unfortunately you can experience both in one trip. No matter what the current temperature is you always wish for the temperature you’re not in. Make sure to dress in layers so you can suffer through both.

2. Napping

We always silently go through this debate, to nap or not to nap. When you’re awake you have to sit through traffic and grasp for conversation topics to break the silence. Or be forced to listen to music that you don’t like one bit. But, once you wake up from a nap in the car you’re just confused. You don’t know what state you’re in what freeway you’re on and you realize you can’t move your neck more than an inch because you fell asleep against the window and now you can’t even turn your head to get a change in scenery. And, depending on how terrible your friends are, you may have to deal with pictures of your slumber circulating the snap universe followed by the oh so clever caption “RIP” or “caught slipping”.

3. The Music

Whoever takes the crucial role of DJ and is awarded the aux has to be the most trusted person in the car. They have the future of the road trip in their hands. Bad music will lead to annoyed passengers and half the fun of driving is screaming to your favorite songs and impressing your friends with your extensive knowledge of irrelevant 90’s songs and ghetto rap music. Now, I understand everyone has different music taste but come on everybody loves High School Musical throwbacks and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. It is imperative to include a variety of songs and make sure a few of them are the classic karaoke songs.

4. Work

Luckily, a road trip is a great time to get work done because you have hours of nothing to do. Unluckily, a road trip is a great time to get work done so you have to try that much harder to find an excuse to procrastinate. You feel bad knowing you’re sitting around doing nothing but the second you pull out your computer that little bit of determination vanishes. You go through a vicious cycle of being so bored you want to do work, to staring at your computer screen regretting your decision to be productive. Car sickness is a go-to excuse to avoid work that no one can argue with, unless they want to deal with the repercussions.

5. Pit Stops

This is a constant debate that can and most likely will lead to an argument. Should we take a pit stop to stretch our legs and buy some snacks or just push through and finish the drive as fast as possible. Each side has viable arguments but it really comes down to the weak vs the strong. Who can’t suck up a few more hours sitting or can’t hold their pee for another second. In the end it comes down to the numbers and the driver. If the driver is one of the weak then pushing through is a lost cause. But, ultimately they are the person trying to keep everyone alive so they’re vote is relatively important.

6. Speed

The debate struggle I want to get out of this car and I want to live to see my next day. Everyone hates sitting in one cramped position for hours on end but nothing is as terrifying as driving down the freeway over the speed limit and swerving through cars while you’re clutching the door for your life and sending up a prayer. You don’t want to be the one to complain because you’re watching the cities fly by but on the other hand you want to actually reach your destination. A slow driver is almost worse. You can see other cars flying past you and may want to cry as another car full of grandmas reaches their destination before you do. This time you’re worried that by the time you make it your trip is going to be over and you’re going to have to turn right back around.

5. Using your phone

This can be a tough topic especially if you don’t have a car charger. Even if you take the greatest care and charge your phone fully the night before and put your phone on low power mode. You will still have to see the juice slowly trickle out of your phone as the car ride goes on. You are with friends so you’ll talk to them but eventually the conversation is going to dwindle and die. You don’t want to be caught without a phone to distract you from the silence even if you’re just scrolling through your feed for the 100^th time even though nothing new has been posted. You have to strategize your battery life to make sure you have access to your phone through the whole trip. It’s a precarious balance between your phone being on the brink of death and being bored out of your mind.