Live-N-Learn
-OR-
Learn-N-Live
"Showing off"
Ever heard the joke, You might be a redneck if you've lost a family member after hearing him say "Hey everybody.....watch THIS!!"? Well guess what, it's not limited to rednecks! Truth it's usually when someone is showing off that trouble is right around the next turn. I myself have made myself a victim by this same mentality, I've just been lucky enough to live through it or not to have killed someone else!
Why is that? Well my explanation, usually you've learned something rather dangerous just well enough you can't wait to show it to others but you haven't quite mastered it or thought it through. For instance, you've got a rear wheel drive car and you've done a couple of burnouts around slippery corners, nothing major, but a burnouts a burnout, right? You're hanging out with some of your friends one night and maybe alcohol's involved....maybe not. One thing leads to another and you're going to show them a burnout like they've never seen! So you climb behind the wheel, your adrenaline is flowing your heart is pumping you rev it up and let it go! Everything is cool at first but you don't let up, all of a sudden the car pitches sideways and guess what? You've lost control of a 3,500 pound wrecking ball! I've personally been inside of a car where my friend was showing off how fast he could drive on a gravel road and lost it hitting a ditch at over 75mph! Not good. Or the time one of my friends was showing off on his motorcycle riding a wheelie, hit the gas a little too hard and the bike flipped over on top of him! He's lucky he wasn't killed!
Truth is we all show off. I personally have 3 video's on our site!! So what's my point? Know your limitations and do NOT go over them! Yeah I do some pretty crazy stuff in a car but I grew up in Illinois where the thing to do after a large snowstorm was find a big empty parking lot and cut donuts and slide your car around! I've done it all my life. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying I know how to handle a car pretty well. HOWEVER that doesn't mean I take a lot of stupid chances where I could hurt someone! You tend to go over your limitations or take extra chances when you're showing off. Always drive within your means to be safe. Screwing around in a big empty parking lot, good. Screwing around in a school parking lot with a lot of your friends standing around, not good! It's all about knowing YOUR car and how to handle it. Want to loose a good friend? Take his car out for a spin and drive it like you drive your car. First corner you put his car into not knowing how it's going to handle it and put it into a tree, IF you get out of it alive chances are you'd wish you were dead....and so would your friend!!
All I'm saying is we all get rapped up in wanting to show off, that's perfectly understandable especially if you have a fast car or bike. Before you show off think for a second, are people close enough where they could get hurt? Are you on a street where someone could pull out in front of you? Have you tried this stunt before by yourself to know you can do it? Learning how to do it for the first time with someone in your car or standing around could make for a VERY long life of regret if someone gets hurt or killed because you couldn't handle it! Think about THAT next time you want to impress someone!