10 benefits of being a sophomore compared to freshman year:

Each year high school sophomores all across the United States celebrate an important milestone in their lives: getting their drivers license. Though several people believe that the mandated age should be increased to 18 for safety reasons, the current minimum driving age of 16 is, without exaggeration, perfect.

On Jan. 26, in extremely rainy weather, four cars driven by four upperclassmen returning from lunch collided on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. None of the students was injured, but the accident called attention to the problem of students driving without "having their year," thereby breaking a state law known as the "year rule."

State laws dictate that a driver may not transport other people with the exception of siblings or adults 25 years or older within his or her first year of having a license. In addition, these young drivers cannot drive between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

My mom and grandmother flank me; my sister is half sitting, half lying down on top of us. We sit squeezed into two back seats of a car half the size of a normal sedan breathing the same sweltering, humid, stuffy pollution blowing through the open windows. The driver and my grandfather in front have the same leg space as we do: none.

The car swerves around a buffalo being milked, hits a pothole, stopping in the middle of the intersection barely missing a horse carriage, pedestrians, and cycle rickshaws crossing in front of us. Everyone bounces up an inch, bumps into the roof, and lands back into the dog pile. The deafening cacophony of honks around us only grows louder. No one is wearing seatbelts, but everything we are doing is legal. Well… welcome to India.

The engine is running, and my clammy hands grip the wheel as I slowly press the accelerator. My mom, who’s sitting next to me, gives a small yell of fright as I swerve out of the way of a tree on the side of the road. Suddenly, there’s a crash, and when we get out of the car, the whole front is smashed through—the tree, however is completely unharmed. I have officially destroyed the family SUV.

This is how I have always imagined my first time behind the wheel.

I’ve always been scared of the whole concept of driving. It isn’t that I’ve been in any major accidents or have any other serious reasons to fear getting behind the wheel, but it’s more that I think that I will crash. This makes me feel even more pressure while driving, or doing something similar to it.