By Stephanie Gross
Staff Writer

I was in disbelief.

On Nov 20 I find myself sitting at a stoplight with my window down as an enraged driver yells at me.

It was around 11:30 p.m. when I was driving a friend home after catching a movie. It was late, I was tired and my parents wanted me to be home by midnight. I got to a stoplight, signaled to turn right and decided to go, not seeing a car coming from the other direction.

Granted, it was my fault and I should have looked in both directions for a longer period of time. It was a completely honest screw up on my part that even scared me a little.

Luckily, nothing happened and the car drove past mine as I slowed down and made my way to the front of the neighborhood.

As my friend and I sat at a red stop light at the front of my neighborhood, a car pulled up next to mine and began rolling down the window. It was dark, so at first I did not recognize this was the same car that I had almost gotten in an accident with.

For the next few minutes I had the privilege to listen to a loudmouth, extremely nosey and angry man yell at me for the stop sign incident. I understand that what I did was not smart, but I also tried to explain to him it was an accident and it would not happen again. Well, that was not enough for him, and he even went as far to ask for my name and home address.

The light finally turned green and I drove away. The entire time I was driving, I could not stop thinking about what had just happened. I kept my calm until I got home and realized a random stranger was so angry over something that would be irrelevant by the next day had to go to the extremes of asking me personal information.

That was not OK. It made me angry and I was shaken up.

This was my first true experience with road rage. It was not fun, but it made me a better and more knowledgeable driver.

After that incident, I promised myself that I would try my best not to get angry or honk at other drivers on the road. Let me just say, that man did have a point when he told me what had happened that night was dangerous, but he also made a complete fool out of himself by going on and on about the subject, and he also did an awesome job of freaking two 17-year-old girls out.

Road rage needs to end. It does no good for any driver on the road. If something happens on the road, there are other alternatives to dealing with it.

First, take a deep breathe. You never know if the other person really did not see you and made a mistake. As a teenage driver, I know there are tons of inexperienced drivers on the road, but just be patient.

There is no point in working yourself up about an incident on the road. Think about it this way, you will probably never see that person or car again, so what is the point of getting overly angry about it?

There are going to be crazy drivers out on the road, it is just a fact. There is nothing that anyone can do about it, so getting worked up about the situation is not necessary. It is one thing to question why some drivers drive the way they do, but it is another to pull them over and personally scold them. That is just ridiculous and if someone is willing to do that, they really need to find something better to do with their time.

My advice is just to stay calm, safe and most importantly aware on the roads and avoid any conflict with other drivers. Having road rage just is not worth it.