When I was young I always remember asking my dad for help. If my mom did not know how to explain something to me, my dad always did. I remember my mom getting so frustrated when I would not understand something that she was trying to teach me. The difference in my mom and dad was that my mom would verbally tell me how to do something. But I do not learn that way. My dad on the other hand was a visual learner and he showed me how to do something rather than tell me.
A good example of this was when I got my first car. I was so excited to be able to drive myself around and not have to depend on anyone else to take me. I most definitely was not thinking about maintenance and the money that went into getting a car. My first car was maybe one thousand dollars. When we got it I was so in love. I pulled up in the driveway the last day of the bus taking me to school and my dream had became a reality. My first thought was I am going to baby this car and keep it forever. I was so brainwashed I did not even realize that I had to put gas in it. I thought cars would run forever without having to do anything to them. But my thoughts were all wrong.
One sunny day I was riding down the road not having a care in the world when I noticed a light flashing on my dash. I did not know what to do. I immediately started panicking and called my mom.
“Mom I need help” I didn’t even give her a chance to say hello. I looked at her as a hero so I hoped that she had an answer to my problem.
“What is the matter?” she said.
“There is a yellow light with an exclamation mark in it flashing on my dash” I explained
With much frustration she said “ call your dad and ask him” and she then hung the phone up. By this time I found a stopping place where I felt was a safe place to pull over and take a look at the car to try and find the problem. I walked towards the front of my car and noticed how my front passenger tire was flat. I thought that now would be a good time to call my dad and ask him for help. He picked up on the first ring.
“Dad I need help. One of my tires is flat and I’m not sure what to do.”
“Where are you? I’ll be right there”
I felt like as soon as we hung the phone up I saw my dad pulling up. He asked me to pop the trunk and I was very confused. He lifted up the carpet in my trunk and there was a tire, a jack and a lug wrench. At this point in the tire changing process my mind was blown. I didn’t even know that cars came with these things. He explained to me how the jack worked and where to place it. He started loosening the lug nuts. Once he did that he then showed me how to use the jack and explained to me where it needed to go to take pressure off the tire so we could get it off. Then he took the lugs completely off and slid the tire right off. The tire that we were about to put on almost looked like a bike tire. It was so small. After we replaced the flat tire he explained that this was not a permanent fix. He told me that I needed to have a used tire put on the wheel that the flat tire was on.
I was so grateful for this experience because he taught me how to put on a spare tire just in case a similar incident happened in the future. Maybe I can use want my dad taught me to teach someone else who doesn’t know how to change a tire one day.
Chelsey's Blog 