I actually did take driver’s ed, which would not sound strange but for the fact that I do not have my driver’s license. It was my junior year of high school, and I made an awesome driver’s ed playlist of all songs having to do with cars and driving.

But, having my birthday in late May, by the time I was ready to take my test, I was getting packed to head to Pennsylvania for summer camp. Then, my senior year rolled around, and college applications took precedence over finishing learning how to drive. It wasn’t like I needed to drive around in Manhattan, anyway.

I really wish I could drive now, though. For one, I love being home alone and getting to sing along to my music at whatever volume I please. I think singing along to certain songs would hit differently if I were driving.

But, from a practical standpoint, I really do need to know how to drive. Being a journalism major, I can’t exactly be expected to report if I’m not mobile.

I remember an investigative journalist once came to speak at one of my first-year Medill lectures. As interested as I was in what he had to say, I remember thinking that I couldn’t do what he did: Almost every story he told started with, “I hopped in my car.”

And now, living alone and fending for myself, I’m finding my inability to drive especially difficult to deal with. I’m more or less confined to the mile or so radius around Northwestern’s campus, especially now that it’s so cold. This gets a bit tricky when I have errands I want to run, like, say, getting groceries.

I now rely on my friends and their schedules. The best text I can receive is, “I need to go to Trader Joe’s. Wanna come?” Even if I don’t really need groceries, I can never pass up the opportunity to take advantage of my friends’ wheels.

The other day, I needed to drop some stuff off at Goodwill. I’ve tried selling my clothes to Crossroads once, but they wouldn’t take my perfect-condition perfectwhitetee sweatsuit because it was “dated.” Never again. I ended up making my friend brownies in exchange for assisting me on my Goodwill run.

I will say, one of the benefits of not having access to a car (or a way to drive it) is that all of my errands are basically mini playdates. It’s a lot more fun to do what you gotta do when you can do it with driver friends.

And, being such busy, overachieving Wildcats, sometimes the only time you can hang out with your friends is in the freezer aisle of Trader Joe’s. Specifically by the gyoza.

I appreciate my friends’ willingness to let me tag along on their journeys, or even go out of their way to help me on mine. There’s a positive Shower Thought for you, look! The kids all write!

And to my friends who may be reading this who are in the position to drive me around, first, thank you. Second, I’ve been craving a TJ Maxx trip.

Sylvie Slotkin is a Medill junior and author of “Communal Shower Thoughts.” She can be contacted at [email protected] or by fax. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

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