Who Knows How to Drive?

We were returning from a school trip. We were split across three white vans, driven by the Adults™️: the director D, assistant director A, and a grad student G assigned to our program. For whatever reason, our director drove aggressively and left our "caravan" (is it a caravan when its only 2 vans?).

At some point, G became very nervous about driving. Strangely, I don’t remember if I was in the van driven by G or by A. Pretty sure I was with A since I remember talking with her while driving, but this might not have been from our return. I remember people in the 2 vans texting and calling each other as the situation began. Pretty quickly we stopped. I believe we were still in West Virginia at the time. We managed to find a spot to pull over, no small feat since this was a narrow road alongside mountains.

We were all trying to figure out what happened. G was white as a sheet and stuttering. We waited for them to recover, but they didn’t calm down enough. Ideas about how to proceed were haphazardly thrown around. Someone suggested coffee, another mentioned music. I think most of us realized that we were already in a very relaxing situation (a leisurely mountain drive with incredible scenery). I ¿think? we had a false start.

Eventually, A started going round asking us if any of us could drive. D had mentioned it earlier, apparently peeved that we were dawdling over a trivial matter. A was concerned about liability, and you know …​ a young adult driving a large vehicle packed to the brim with people. I was asked, since I had a permit (not my full license) and was one of the eldest students. Unfortunately, I declined. A freshmen eventually volunteered. She definitely was the calmest amongst those asked.

She drove us back safely. It was a few hours and we all rejoiced upon returning to the dorm.

In retrospect, I could’ve volunteered to drive since we were taking it slowly. Or we could’ve taken turns.