turbulence - by vincent huang - a slice of my mind

on the open road all cars eventually diverge from one another. this fact was not obvious to me until my third or fourth road trip. so many times i would see a car traveling at a speed similar to my own and i would think oh, this is fine, i’ll just stay behind that car for a while, and then one of two things would happen - the other car, imperceptibly faster, would travel a few inches more every minute and eventually pull away; the other car, imperceptibly slower, would eventually become a hindrance so significant that i had no choice but to overtake it i never thought i would be a passer. my adolescence: driving at the speed limit, staying in right lanes, risk aversion to the extreme. the first time i tried to pass someone last year it took me four attempts because i wasn’t used to accelerating so quickly. but what i have realized in recent months is that, on a sufficiently long trip, every driver must become a passer when i say that highways feel violent, this is usually what i mean -

on the open road all cars eventually diverge from one another. this fact was not obvious to me until my third or fourth road trip. so many times i would see a car traveling at a speed similar to my own and i would think oh, this is fine, i’ll just stay behind that car for a while, and then one of two things would happen - the other car, imperceptibly faster, would travel a few inches more every minute and eventually pull away; the other car, imperceptibly slower, would eventually become a hindrance so significant that i had no choice but to overtake it i never thought i would be a passer. my a