A Job to be Done

As I came up to my 17th birthday, my mum asked me if I would like driving lessons for my birthday. I said 'yes' of course. I told my friends about this decision at college. One of them laughed. Unnerved, I asked him what was funny. "I bet you crash" he said laughing, and grinned at me. I gave him a sideways look and didn't respond. He was always saying thingslike this to me, yet when I really am in danger then he looks after me as if I'm his little sister. This remark worried me though, not because Ithought heactually wanted me to crash, but because the possibility of it happening had just occurred to me. I sat there quietly for a bit, and thought about it. I decided to go and look up some statistics on the Internet. I searched for stats about car crashes, and accidents during driving lessons or a driving test. One site I found was run by driving school uk. The stats on there was very encouraging, and the chance of crashing during a lesson or test was virtually none. The duel control of thecar means that the driving instructor can control the car at any time, in case there is an emergency. I logged off the driving school uk site, and went to find myfriends again. I told the one that wanted me to crash about the statistics that I had found on the Internet. He laughed again "I bet you're one of the unlucky1% that do crash! Even driving school uk admit that 1% crash!". Another friend told him off forworrying me, and he ruffled my hair and said 'You're not really worried, are you?". I said no, although a fear was starting in the pit of my stomach. Later that night, I was back on the driving school uk website when I got a phone call. I looked at the caller ID and it was my friend. I picked it up, but before he could say anything I said 'If you're ringing to tease me about crashing then don't bother". There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and then a lady's voice said "Excuse me, I am Jay's mother, I'm afraid he has had an accident". My heart and stomach dropped, and my head felt faint. I managed tohold it together as she told me about a car crash that he had had on the way home from college that day.The irony didn't even occur to me as I was too worried about him, but a few days later he was back at college with just a sprained wrist. "I guess,I don't want you to crash really" he said quietly as I sat with him and helped him dress his wrist. I smiled at him weakly. It turned out that he had crashed into a motor tradevan as he changed lanes on the motorway on the way home. It was a miracle he came awayok, but it has reallyrespect the danger of driving now.