It was a 1979 Ford truck. All green, stick shift and ugly as sin, but man, my dad loved that truck. Putting phone books behind my back, I was fifteen years old in the dead of an Ohio winter when he took me to our high school parking lot to learn how to drive. "If you can learn how to drive in this, you'll be able to drive anything", were his exact words.
Hours of trying to figure out how to work the menacing clutch with gear grinding torture, eventually the days turned into two cases of mild whiplash and a shiny new license on my 16th birthday.
Fifteen years later, I never would've imagined holding a baby boy in my arms...and fifteen years after that, doing the same with him.
We're in the state of North Carolina now where kids don't begin at the age of fifteen, but fourteen and a half. FOURTEEN and a half. It doesn't seem right, but sure enough that's what they do.
Nervously and excitedly, we signed Christian up for his driver's education courses, then his six hours behind the wheel. To see our son, that same little one we held a minute ago, get behind the wheel was surreal. Why is it that when I was learning to drive, I felt so old, but to look at him he's still a baby?
His fifteenth birthday came along, bringing with it the three and a half day wait in the DMV line, resulting with a driving permit in hand and a smile on his face.
It's next to impossible to believe how fast time is flying. Just yesterday I was in that truck with my dad and now I watch as Christian drives off with Adam, my heart hurting and leaping at the same time.
Hours of trying to figure out how to work the menacing clutch with gear grinding torture, eventually the days turned into two cases of mild whiplash and a shiny new license on my 16th birthday.
Fifteen years later, I never would've imagined holding a baby boy in my arms...and fifteen years after that, doing the same with him.
We're in the state of North Carolina now where kids don't begin at the age of fifteen, but fourteen and a half. FOURTEEN and a half. It doesn't seem right, but sure enough that's what they do.
Nervously and excitedly, we signed Christian up for his driver's education courses, then his six hours behind the wheel. To see our son, that same little one we held a minute ago, get behind the wheel was surreal. Why is it that when I was learning to drive, I felt so old, but to look at him he's still a baby?
His fifteenth birthday came along, bringing with it the three and a half day wait in the DMV line, resulting with a driving permit in hand and a smile on his face.
It's next to impossible to believe how fast time is flying. Just yesterday I was in that truck with my dad and now I watch as Christian drives off with Adam, my heart hurting and leaping at the same time.
I know it'll be another second before he drives off alone, but we'll hold onto this while we can. Nothing prepares you for it all. No books, research, online searches...you just go through and hang on as much as possible...all while thanking God for automatics.
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