As a teenager taking drivers' education, I was terrified of all aspects concerning driving.
Just backing out of the driveway was, at first, a challenge. The instructor would take us to a big parking lot to practice going forward, turning, braking, driving around cones. Then we progressed to driving on streets with traffic where we learned to switch lanes, pass, deal with four-way stops, and so forth. From there, we moved on to the really scary stuff: passing cars on a two-lane country road.

Driving in my home state of Iowa was not too bad except in winter months. I remember commuting to my teaching job in the winter. The roads would be icy and whoosh, another big semi truck would go cruising past me. My heart would start thumping and my arms would get rigid as I tried to keep my car under control. Once I did end up in the ditch. Luckily, another teacher from my school was passing by and gave me a ride to work.

When I moved to the Sunshine state I thought-Great! I will never have to deal with icy roads again. But then I discovered the perils of driving on I-95.

Sometimes when you just have to do something, when there is no way out of it, you learn to get over fears as I did when moving to the big city. Dealing with a strange city, six or eight lane highways, driving with a toddler in the car, and congested traffic-all of that was quite a leap of faith for me at first. But not being able to get out of the house and go anywhere was worse. So I got over it, most of it.

Certain things make me feel safer when I'm driving: seat bags, air bags, a good, solid car, a full tank of gas, a cell phone, knowing where I'm going. I still feel a little apprehensive driving in peak traffic on major highways, but, when I must, I just do it. Maybe the apprehension is a good thing, making me a little more alert and careful.

Taking a driving course might be a good way to get over some fears. I know that part of the driver's education course I took in high school had to do with recognizing dangerous situations such as blind spots, merging traffic, places where another driver might suddenly pull out in front of you. We were taught defensive driving techniques to prevent accidents.

Lack of experience with different types of driving situations is another reason for driving fears. Everyone needs to know what to do if certain situations arise such as if you have a tire blow out, if there is a sudden storm and the roads get slick, or if

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