Testing! Testing!

I remember sitting on the counter of the house I grew up in...some sort of blue non-porous surface that may have been original to the 1920s Staten Island house.

​It was 1996, and I was 10. I had been driving go-carts for the past few summers (the smaller, slower ones...with an eye on the bigger, faster carts), and I had started to develop a hunger for something a bit more real -- a license.

8 year. I had 8 years, and for some reason, my countdown began that very day. Fast forward through lots of teen angst and more changes and drama than I ever could have expected, and I was 18 with a license. I remember my lessons and my incredible Instructor (whom I terrified by changing lanes on a 40MPH main street without looking 🤦). I remember my test, which started and ended in the back of a shopping plaza, like many Safe Pass students. I came a little too close to the car I needed to parallel park behind...but I passed on the first try!

And what did it prove?

Next to nothing.

And that's the attitude we take with every student who comes through our classroom door, every student who sits in one of our driver seats.

Passing or failing a driving test means next to nothing when it comes to the hard skills and knowledge needed to drive safely, especially in the greater Cleveland area, where oh so many drivers simply assume that the other driver is going to make the safe choice.

(Defensive driving is at the top of the list for us. You can't control what other drivers do...but you can control how you react to them!)

When the student I took to the driving test on Valentine's Day passed on the first try, did I jump up and down to celebrate with him? Absofreakinlutely, I did! And then, we made plans for some supplemental freeway driving because guess what? To that point, he had never driven without a license adults (and safety net) sitting next to him! His most challenging chapter had only just begun.

At Safe Pass, we're always saying that words are hard and tests are bullshit. We stand by that...which is why our relationship with our students and their families continues way beyond when that shiny piece of plastic arrives in the mail.

And we treasure those relationships and that trust more than we can say, especially now.

Stay safe in whatever ways you can, friends. All our love 💚

🌺 Max

P.S. -- Less than a week until we welcome our March cohort! 🙌 Spring is on the horizon! 🌼