Many people are told never to meet their childhood heroes. Whether it is a famous athlete, singer, or actor, heroes tend to be disappointments because of the fact that behind their supernatural veneer, they are just normal, average people (who are something super mean).

I can attest to because I recently fell victim to the disappointment of meeting one of my childhood heroes.

I fell in love with the idea of driving a car (at some sort of speed within the bounds of the law) after watching a few episodes of the popular children’s television program “Pimp my Ride.” With freedom, speed, and a feeling of maturity, driving seemed to have it all.

However, like the childhood heroes that I was told never to meet, this dream turned out to be, like many other things in life, quite average.

Sure there driving comes with some advantages, like being able to use drive through, having the freedom and flexibility to go anywhere at any time, and being part of the elite group of people who put their keys on lanyards and hit absolutely everything as they twirl them about, but it is mostly bad.

Paying low gas and insurance prices, buying a cheap parking pass, walking a short distance from the parking lot to the car in the winter, having a quick experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles, never becoming impatient with other drivers who seem like they have no idea what they are doing: these are all things that do not come along with getting a license. This of course is not even taking into account the inevitable disaster that is teenagers having some sort of incident.

Though driving does have its good points, the novelty wears out quite quickly, and is replaced by the feeling that you are doing a boring and tedious chore. As a result, never meet your childhood heroes, and curb your expectations about the thrills of operating a motor vehicle at some speed within the bounds of the law.