Stick Shift is to Driving as Cursive is to Writing

My kid (the oldest) is turning 15 soon.

I know most parents go through the freak-out stage at this point where it is sort of hard to fathom that this human used to be an adorable baby that grew so gradually that it felt like forever and everyone would always tell you enjoy this because it goes so fast and all you (me) do is just sit there and nod and say, yeah, whatever, I am suffering here and you don't seem to care...

Yeah, and now, I am on the precipice of having raised an adult.

I am almost over the hump of having raised an adult human who now after all I have been through, I am going to teach to drive!

Of course I have a stick shift.

It is almost 10 years old. I actually bought this one new.

10 years ago, as a stick shift, on purpose. Even though I was moving to LA. Did I think about the traffic and how annoying driving a stick would be on the 405 commute?

No, because I didn't really even know what the 405 was!

And so, with my offer letter in-tow, I bought the car.

She has a few scratches on her now, and the original battery just died *today*.

I pulled up to the oil change place after having the auto parts store change out the battery. I pulled right up to the guy and I said,

"You know how to drive a stick shift, yes?"

The guy nodded at me knowingly and said, "Yes, m'am."

"Are you sure," I replied, "because the last time I went to an oil change place, no one could drive my care up onto the lift."

"I can drive a stick shift m'am, don't you worry."

A little later, the same guy and I are talking, and another guy comes in and whispers to him that the car won't start.

"You have to put the clutch down for it to start."

"Really?" the other guy says sheepishly.

I look at my guy knowingly. 'See,' I tell him with my eyes. He laughs.

A dying art form; case in point.

The other dying art form is that darn cursive. There was a time not long ago when I heard that the kiddos were not going to be learning cursive in school.

All the older generation were throwing a fit - my mother for instance - saying kids these days, how will they be able to read and write letters to dear ol' gramms and gramps.

I think we all know the answer to that...

No, not email people. Just, they won't! They are too busy playing candy crush and farmville and making fun and judging eachother on tiktok these days to care about letters.

Back at the oil change place, a tech and a customer lament about 'this generation.' (I was not sure exactly which generation they were talking about tbh.)

Were they talking about lazy millennials? Or Gen Z who 'didn't want to work.' Oh wait, it sounds the same.

Maybe its not that they don't want to work. Its that they never learned how. And who's fault is that.

I wonder if cursive and driving a stick shift are both obsolete? Actually, if that's the case, oil changes will soon be obsolete too!

"Everything is going be going electric very soon here so..."

Maybe its just the natural way of things, the newer generation not adopting the old things because they are being phased out of society. But maybe work ethic started with the dissolution of learning cursive and driving a stick shift. I tell ya! Two of the most nonsensical and annoyingly painful things to learn that have to develop over time and after making many mistakes. And slowing down. Who wants to do that anymore?

We don't know how to slow down anymore! We don't know how to take the time with each other. No one wants to work? Is that because we took all the pride and the joy out of the opportunities to spend time and slowly build up to being good at something? As opposed to just throwing people in, feeding them to the fire, paying them very little, and then get angry when they just try to act like a machine, but they can't????

I recently went off-roading in an ATV. It was very fun. And all I had to do was put my foot on the gas and sort of steer. The machine did the rest. I am sure there is some skill to it, for sure and I got better over the two hours that I did it, but... I gotta say, driving a stick shift is more challenging :).

Driving a stick shift and writing cursive, two things that we should definitely take the time to teach our kids, even if the schools don't. Leading by example and taking our time, being polite to people and not badmouthing others just because they are not as fast as we would like them to be. We need to unlearn the judgy-ness that TikTok taught.

We need to slow down, take a deep breath, remember the lost art of the handwritten thank you note, and the afternoon Sunday drive...

...in the school parking lot...

...with a fire extinguisher and an extra clutch...

and all the patience we can muster. (Wish me luck!)

Vroom!