The biggest day of any 16-year-old's life besides actually turning 16 is getting your driver's license. You work for months and months trying to build your driving skills. You dream of the day when you can drive wherever you want. You don’t realize it at the time, but driving will give you mobility through the rest of your life.

The thrill of driving usually starts in a neighborhood. Your parents frantically stress as they switch positions in the car with their eager teenager. You put on the seatbelt, then proceed to put the car in drive. You get a special exhilaration from going 15 to 20 miles per hour. Your parents will always warn you to take it slow and easy. Normally the dads are more laid back when their child is driving -- at least, they pretend to be. Moms, on the other hand, have no filter. They will scream at you to slow down the second you go a mile over the speed limit. Soon the loop around the neighborhood is over, and for you, the thrill of the day is over too.

Finally, the big day comes. The day you attempt to take your driver’s test is here. You begin to stress and become really nervous. You know you can always take the test again if you fail, but the peer pressure of passing the first time is always in the back of your mind. The most stressful part of the test is the parallel-parking section. If your wheel hits the curb, you fail, and if your wheel is over 18 inches away from the curb, you fail. Soon, hopefully, the most stressful day of your life so far becomes one of the best days of your life. You passed your test, and now you’re free. You can now drive wherever you’d like all by yourself.

With your parents' permission, you are able to drive yourself to school. You no longer have to ride a bus or have your parents take you. You begin to experience the best days of your high-school career: meeting up with your friends and making amazing memories. You have the freedom to go places without having to work around your parents' schedule. You begin to feel older and more independent.

Soon driving isn’t exciting anymore. It’s just a way you get from point A to point B. You become careless when driving. This is when most accidents happen. An estimated total of 6,428 crashes is caused by teen drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 in the United States. But the minute you get in an accident you never return to the careless driver that you were before. You stay alert in fear of crashing again.

Before you know it, you are driving yourself to college. For a lot of teenagers, this is the first time they drive a long distance from home all by themselves. And this grown-up independence all started when your parents would pull in the neighborhood when you were 16, and you would ask them, “Can I drive?” You never realize how much driving has done for you in life until you actually look back upon those early days through your rear-view mirror.